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Felix Quinonez: I think this is a great result. It might not be earth shattering and the movie still has a LONG way to go until it breaks even but it definitely helped in the perception department. Now that it has over-performed, I think more people will be championing the movie and rooting for it to succeed. Had it underwhelmed, it would have been written off by many and the negative press may have dissuaded people who were on the fence about seeing it.

Reagen Sulewski: This is the film that has most effectively marketed itself with 3D since Avatar, if you think about it. There is virtually nothing else to this film that people can hook on to - "So it's an Indian dude, on a boat for two hours?" "Well, there's a tiger." "That makes even *less* sense!" - so what could uninitiated audiences really be finding in this? Now, there's a sizable initiated audience, since this book was freaking everywhere ten years ago, so it's got some headspace with the public. If we're going to continue to compare this to Cloud Atlas, they might have been better served to wait five or six years to make that film.

Kim Hollis: I think that the debut weekend is pretty spectacular given that it really is tough to know what to make of this film. The book was a bit more universal of a success internationally than Cloud Atlas was, but they are both comparable in that it's possible to think of each of them as unfilmable. And yet, here we are talking about both adaptations within about a month's time. I think that the difference for Life of Pi is going to be the fact that it's got the 3D hook to continue to draw in audiences who just love to see a movie that looks good, but also its positive word-of-mouth and awards potential. Because of its solid opening weekend performance, the story can be painted in a very positive way, and perception is really everything.

Max Braden: I don't really understand the criticism about there being very little to the story, it's not much different than Cast Away in that aspect. This is an easy, family-friendly holiday option at the movies. $30 million makes sense to me.

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