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Kim Hollis: Happy Holidays, everyone! A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas opened to $13.0 million. What do you think of this result?

Edwin Davies: This is a little bit less than I was expecting since I thought that, considering the cult audience the series has and the increased revenue potential of 3D and inflation, that it would at least overtake the second film to have the biggest opening weekend of the series. I didn't expect it to become a breakout hit, but I thought that a result in the $15-19 million was highly possible. Considering that apparently 95% of the tickets sold were for 3D screenings it seems that fewer people showed up this time around, which either means that the bloom has gone off the rose for Harold & Kumar a bit or that a sizable proportion of the target audience intended to see the film, decided to smoke a little bit of weed beforehand, then realized that it was 2 in the morning and that they'd have to go next weekend.

However, it only cost $15 million to produce, the reviews are strong enough that it'll probably hold up fairly well going forward, and you've still got the home media market, which has been incredibly kind to Harold and Kumar over the years, which is where the film will really shine. This is a perfectly fine, unspectacular start, but not bad by any means.

Bruce Hall: This result is less than we saw from the last installment, even considering the 3D bump in ticket price. On the surface that's not good news. But as has been pointed out, this almost covers the production budget. To New Line and Warner Bros, the modest budget and built in audience is like ATM card with access to other people's money. By now, everyone knows what to expect from Harold and Kumar. If you're a fan, you're a fan. If you're not, you're not. If you're the kind of person who likes to wait and see how it does before making your decision, you'll probably go next week. Or pick it up on video. Any way you look at it, easy money.

The franchise is running out of gas and whether this is it for Harold and Kumar or not, at the end of the day this will be a counterculture Christmas classic. It'll be remembered as more of a success than it really was, but it will nonetheless be a success.

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