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Edwin Davies: Like most everyone else, I'm impressed by this opening, even if I'm not sure whether or not it is good enough on its own to make Snow White and The Huntsman a success. That $170 million price tag is INSANE considering that the director has not made a film before and that its stars were, in the case of Stewart and Hemsworth, largely unproven outside of their respective franchises and, in the case of Theron, never that much of a big draw in the first place. It's going to have to work really hard to match that budget domestically, and frankly, I think it's going to struggle to stay afloat amidst all the new films that are going to start flooding the marketplace pretty soon.

However, putting those considerations aside, the opening weekend tally is impressive, especially since SWATH managed to make almost as much in three days as Mirror Mirror did in its entire run. That can be attributed to a number of things; two rising stars in the lead role, a dark and gritty color palette, the media blitz that the studio unleashed in the week leading up to release, but I think that the key factor was that it seemed to follow through with its promise of delivering a new, dark spin on the traditional fairytale. (Though, to be honest, if anyone in Hollywood really wanted to do something nasty with the Snow White myth they'd pay someone to adapt Neil Gaiman's "Snow, Glass, Apples.") The ads made this look epic and cool, and the decision to make it look like a Lord of the Rings style fantasy made it stand out against every other film currently out there.

Max Braden: This was more than I expected, because for all the heavy TV advertising I saw for it, I just kept feeling like they were trying too hard. Too hard to look like Lord of the Rings, too hard to sell the evil. And on top of that, Kristen Stewart wasn't really the focus of the trailer - it was really Charlie Theron's spotlight. I guess they figured they could count on the Twilight fans as long as Stewart's name was in the credits. And I guess they tried as much as they needed to. Like MIB3, though, I still feel very ho-hum about Snow White and the Huntsman, and I didn't see any sterling reviews to convince me otherwise.

David Mumpower: I seem to be the only here who wasn't surprised by this. As Kim and I mentioned in the Saturday update, this struck me as exactly the type of project people have wanted for a while now. The studio system has failed them in the delivery process with Red Riding Hood and Mirror Mirror, neither of which was a quality production. Even so, Mirror Mirror and Red Riding Hood each did middling to respectable business relative to budget outlay. What I kept thinking during the build-up to Snow White and the Huntsman is that people wanted this concept. After all, Once Upon a Time averages 11.7 million viewers. At $10 a ticket (which is what the average ticket costs these days no matter what lie the MPAA is telling at the moment), that means there are at least $117 million worth of customers to entice into theaters. And that's just scratching the surface with a fairy tale icon such as Snow White. I thought this project had a shot at $175 million, which is right around where it's pacing after opening weekend. Give Universal credit for giving the right stars the perfect storyline. It reminds me of Wanted in this regard.

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