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Max Braden: I'd call that result at least double what would have been considered a good opening. I think that this is one of the first movies this that people looked at and saw Oscar potential, creating a must-see mindset. And I think The Help also looks and feels similar to The Blind Side, itself one of the Best Picture nominees. Oh, also, in contrast to the rest of the summer, it doesn't look dumb.

Jason Lee: The book's significant fanbase aside, I hardly thought that the film would become a break-out success given the anemic commercials that Disney has been using to promote the film. Seriously, it just seemed like 30 seconds of random women reading a book and gasping audibly. Hardly the stuff that $25+ million openings are made of...or so I thought.

David Mumpower: At the risk of stating the obvious, the one asset The Help had that is all too rare is that it has a positive perception among consumers. The book is very popular, the buzz regarding the film has been nothing short of massive, and the glowing reviews are of a level ordinarily reserved for awards season. In fact, The Help just kickstarted an absolutely dreadful Oscars year to date with this scintillating debut. Everything about this project is positive, something I haven't been able to say about a project since Inception. We have seen solid box office and solid reviews for multiple titles but nothing on this scale. While we all acknowledge this is a smaller scale than some of the other summer winners, I wholeheartedly agree with Brett that this is the drama equivalent of a $90 million debut. There are not enough superlatives in the dictionary to describe aptly what Disney has accomplished here.

Good ol' Wichita

Kim Hollis: With Easy A, Zombieland and The Help in the books and the Spider-Man reboot forthcoming, is it fair to say that Emma Stone is proving herself as a legitimate box office draw?

Tim Briody: I'd still say it's not that she's a draw, it's that she's picked the right projects in the three aforementioned films (and add in Crazy, Stupid, Love and Friends With Benefits and she's having a heck of a summer). And anybody could be in Spider-Man and it'd still do huge business.

Brett Beach: I am of the same mind that she has remarkable taste (and luck) in picking her projects - from the TV show Drive on to Superbad and to the present she has been in only one out-and-out critical/commercial dud (The Rocker) - but outside of Easy A, I don't know that I would attribute any success entirely to her. She has jumped on to my wife's and my list of actresses we keep an eye on (for what that's worth) and I do feel she is reaching the point where Reese Witherspoon was in the early 2000s where a Legally Blonde/Sweet Home Alabama type double-punch could lift her off into the stratosphere. She seems to have latched on to Will Gluck pretty strong, hopefully they can do right by each other.

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