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Here comes Summer

Kim Hollis: What does the shocking performance of The Hunger Games do to the competition? Should the producers of The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight rises be excited by this unexpected burst of box office expansion? Alternately, is there more pressure on them, since there is a chance that this unheralded March film is the biggest opener of 2012?

Felix Quinonez: I think anyone in the movie industry should be thrilled about this just because it's so good for the box office and industry in general, especially when you remember what a lousy start 2011 had. I also think this definitely raises the pressure on the big three. I see this as similar to when Fast Five surprised everyone last year and stole Thor's thunder. On a side note, I don't think The Amazing Spider-Man should be considered to be in the same league as The Avengers or The Dark Knight Rises. That franchise is kind of damaged goods right now and a lot of people think it's too soon to see a reboot. I think The Amazing Spider-Man has to win back the good will of the audience (like X-Men: First Class had to do last year) before it can be considered a heavyweight like The Avengers or The Dark Knight Rises.

Edwin Davies: This massively raises the stakes for The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises, though, like Felix, I never considered the Amazing Spider-Man to be in the conversation for biggest opening of the year. Both of those films have the edge since they have several films worth of expectations and goodwill built up, and The Avengers has the added advantage of the 3D surplus, but they've suddenly got a whole new contender that realistically no one was anticipating, so their momentum has been disrupted, even if it won't be completely derailed by this result.

Jim Van Nest - I don't know that I ever thought the Avengers would be bigger than The Hunger Games. While it does has several movies feeding into it, Hunger Games had an anticipation that I hadn't felt in a long time for a film. The Dark Knight Rises...I'm not sure where I fall on this one. And I say this because The Dark Knight had a couple things going for it that I don't know that Rises can match. The word-of-mouth on Heath Ledger's Joker was insane already...and when he died, it went into the stratosphere. I'm not so sure that The Dark Knight was ever supposed to be the juggernaut it turned out to be. I think it was a perfect storm at the time. And I'm not sure Rises will be able to equal it. My caveat here is that I've heard very little about any of the performances, and if someone has a breakout like Ledger did, it could well compete. This was my very wordy way of saying I think Hunger Games will have the biggest opening of 2012.

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