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David Mumpower: I too enjoyed the movie and thought it to be one of Will Ferrell's better recent efforts. Despite this, I have noticed enough hostility with regards to comments about the movie to wonder if it will stay in theaters long enough to take advantage of campaign season. Ferrell is a divisive presence and I fear that The Campaign has been deemed one of his lesser works. Those tend to die quickly as opposed to the $100 million earners that stick around indefinitely. I would recommend the movie to friends but I seem to be in the minority.

We're going to accidentally confuse this with Hope Floats. A lot.

Kim Hollis: Hope Springs, the not-as-disgusting-as-it-sounds Tommy Lee Jones/Meryl Streep sex comedy, opened to $14.6 million during its opening weekend and $19.1 million over five days. What do you think of this result?

Matthew Huntley: It's exactly what I expected, and given this is a Meryl Streep romantic comedy aimed at women, I think we can foresee a final domestic tally in the $55-$65 million range, which would make it mid-level hit based on its budget ($30 million, of which most of it was probably the actors' salaries). Streep's movies of this nature tend to have legs and it wouldn't surprise me if this film only eroded by 35-40% each week up until late September since its target demographic (like my parents) doesn't tend to rush out on opening weekend.

Edwin Davies: I think that this is a very respectable start for a film that is likely to have a very good run. The main reasons for this are to do with the fact that it is aimed at an audience that is pretty ill-served by Hollywood most of the time, all three-leads are likable, and because the film is actually meant to be pretty good. (This last point surprises me hugely, since the trailers for it were, for me, horrible and painful to sit through.) Meryl Streep's films in recent years have tended to have pretty long lives at the box office, so throw in some actual quality and this could do very well.

Felix Quinonez: I think this is a very respectable opening. It might not be huge but I can't imagine the target audience to be the kind that needs to rush out and see it opening weekend so it should hold up pretty well. Ultimately I think this will be a modest sized hit.

David Mumpower: An important aspect I would note with relation to the movie's holdover appeal is that Hope Springs earned 70% more on Sunday, its fifth day in theaters, than it did on its opening day last Wednesday. After a debut of less than $2.3 million, there were not a lot of people arguing it would earn $20 million by close of business Monday yet this is exactly what happened. Hope Springs is the blueprint example of why studios release movies on Wednesday. Building buzz via distributor confidence is a concept that still works.

Kim Hollis: I think we've pretty well established reasonable expectations for Meryl Streep's films based on her past several movies. She is a draw and her movies are designed for an under-served crowd with distinct movie-going habits. Positive word-of-mouth will keep this one performing strongly and should allow it to hang around for awhile.

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