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David Mumpower: I was always dubious of this concept as a movie prior to the release phase. I too thought that the trailers were awful and in fact would suggest this title as a future topic for Samuel Hoelker's new column, Trailer Trash. There is simply not much laughter to be had in the ads. The moment I turned around on it was when I heard its tagline, "They're Too Old For This Shift". That's a very clever tip of the cap not only to the casting but to the casting of the original show. All four members of the original crew were in their early to mid-20s when the show began.

When the reviews started coming in and were universally positive, I was still taken aback and remain surprised. When word leaked that a sequel was in the works a couple of weeks prior to the first film's release, I was against caught off-guard. Sony knew what we did not. 21 Jump Street is a remarkably good adaptation with the best cameo since Zombieland. None of this makes me any less surprised about a $35 million opening weekend, though. That total is legitimately double what I had expected. I guess Jonah Hill beating up a friend of his mom is funnier than I thought.

Finally, praise of Clone High is always welcome. THERE is a TV show that needs a movie adaptation.

Reagen Sulewski: It's probably difficult to take too many lessons from this success, since it ultimately boils down to "make a funny movie." There, I've told you how, now go do it! Sony did a great job of managing expectations here though, and once they knew what they had, sold it to everyone who would listen and let them tell the world. It sort of reminds me a bit what Universal did with Bridesmaids, although that's with poorer trailers. I think there was also a nice bit of kismet, in that they were coming off Jonah Hill's biggest exposure ever with his Oscar nomination (that still sounds weird) and Channing Tatum's biggest hit yet. It's a nice bit of lightning in a bottle.

Edwin Davies: This does seem to have been something of a perfect storm for 21 Jump Street. It has two stars who have hit peaks in their careers at more or less the same time, with the success of The Vow in particular potentially drawing more of a female audience to the film than might have been tempted to it beforehand, and a clever marketing campaign that played on the ridiculousness of the central premise. Most importantly, the film itself is really, really good and genuinely funny. Without that crucial component, I don't think the other two would have been enough to open the film to this much: we just need to look back a few months at The Sitter's performance to see what happens when you have a high-profile star, a big marketing push and a terrible film that no one wants to see.

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