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Edwin Davies: This result was largely the result of the success of Hart's last concert movie, Laugh At My Pain. That film finished with a comparatively modest $7.7 million, but it was also the biggest stand-up comedy film in almost a decade. Admittedly, that's because most stand-ups put their material on cable or online these days, so concert movies are pretty rare, but that just made that success all the more impressive. That result suggested that Hart was pretty big, especially since it never played in more than 287 theaters, and the subsequent two years have only seen his profile rise. He was in Think Like A Man, which was a sizable hit, he hosted SNL and he toured, playing gigs around the world. This movie came out at exactly the right time to capitalize on the cresting of the wave of his success, striking while his career is hot.

Lionsgate for their part responded to his increased profile brilliantly, putting the film out to more than three times as many locations, meaning more fans could see the film - especially those who might not have been able to see him live on the tour itself, which always an appeal of these films - but without overstretching it or diluting availability in regards to the demand. It's a combination of great timing with regards to Hart's career and a smart release strategy and it paid off beautifully.

Max Braden: I caught Laugh at My Pain on cable in the past few days, but I don't know if it had been running long enough to provide some advertising for the new movie, or if it had been programmed to grab viewers who had just caught Let Me Explain in theaters and were happy to watch more of Hart's material. I really had no awareness that Hart had a comedy movie in theaters, so I'd attribute the success this weekend to word-of-mouth, and the success of word of mouth based on Hart's broadly appealing comedy.

Kim Hollis: Oh, I saw trailer and ads (and they had me interested. I really believe Think Like a Man had the success it did largely *because* of Kevin Hart so his latest concert film success seems like a logical progression. I love that a comedy concert film was able to perform this well.

David Mumpower: BOP took some heat last year for attributing so much of the popularity of Think Like a Man, a highly recommended movie by the way, to Kevin Hart. I understood those arguments since it was an ensemble piece. I disagreed with the assertions because Hart was the person featured in the trailers. I fully expected Let Me Explain to open extremely well this weekend but I am still shocked by this result. Hart has leveled up to the point that he has become Steve Carell-like in his own way. Carell earned the respect of his peers long before he became a household name. Hart has accomplished the same feat and is by his own admission now following the same career path as Eddie Murphy. I am not sure he can ever be a leading man due to his minuscule stature (he's 5'2" and maybe 150 pounds) but he should be the gold standard as comedy relief for a long time to come. The grass roots nature of his ascension is also refreshing. Kevin Hart is the people's choice, and we have chosen wisely.

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