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I really think that The Wolverine should have at the VERY LEAST opened to over $60 million. And now the conversation won't be about the quality of the movie but about its disappointing opening weekend so I don't really see a lot of chance that this movie will have strong legs. Oh man, I actually feel bad typing this because I really loved the movie and the character, and the comics, and Hugh Jackman's portrayal. I don't care how tall he is, he is a damn good Wolverine. Sorry Wolvie.

Bruce Hall: I think people like us often overestimate how interested the general public is in the same things we are. Wolverine is one of the most popular superheroes of all time - among people whose primary interests include superheroes. But among the public at large, I'm not sure this is the case. Spider-Man, Batman and Superman are American icons, likely to draw a great deal of general interest. Wolverine, on the other hand, may be more of a niche character than his biggest fans realize. I think that the success of the X-Men films attracted a lot of mainstream moviegoers to the first Wolverine film, and its poor quality no doubt turned those people off. They weren't going to get burned again by dorks like me who try to convince them that he's a much more interesting hero than Spider-Man. In other words, it's entirely possible that The Wolverine was a victim of its underperforming predecessor. The Hulk-like results we saw this weekend may be a more realistic read on the general level of interest in this character (we all know what who makes Iron Man tick, and I do not believe the relative success of the Captain America and Thor films was related to the popularity of the characters themselves as much as it was to the marketing effort behind them).

Still, it's a solid opening, and the strong international returns will ensure the movie is a success. I don't think any of the executives at Fox will balk at buying that third Porsche tomorrow morning. But with the inevitable 55-60 percent drop in receipts that's coming next weekend, we could be looking at somewhere south of $150 million domestic and done for The Wolverine. Something tells me this is the last standalone adventure we're going to see for everyone's favorite X-Man.

Jim Van Nest: Maybe I'm out of touch, but I'm actually surprised by this opening. The last Wolverine movie was not good (I just watched it on FX last night...and yeah, it still sucks). X3 was probably worse. I take First Class out of the discussion because it's a different cast, different story. The bottom line, the last two flicks with Wolverine pretty well sucked. Why would we expect a huge opening for this one? My family saw it opening day and we all loved it, but we had no reason to expect it to be any good, given the recent history. I can see why people would shy away. $55 million is better than what I expected from a franchise that looked like it could be dead.

Kim Hollis: I tend to agree that it's a tribute to Hugh Jackman's portrayal of this character that it managed to do as well as it did this weekend. Yes, it's way down from the previous Wolverine film, but given how absolutely terrible it was, there was no reason for anyone to have confidence that there would be a good reason to revisit the character. I always thought tracking sounded like it was far too optimistic. If they'd tempered expectations some, I don't know if people would be considering this a terrible result.

David Mumpower: As I mentioned in the Friday Numbers column, I am of the opinion that The Wolverine was never a foregone conclusion as a blockbuster. As Jim stated, the last movie was a cinematic abomination; in addition, even if we discount Hugh Jackman's cameo in X-Men: First Class, The Wolverine represents his fifth appearance as the character. As blasphemous as the statement may sound to some, there isn't a tremendous amount of difference between Jackman's Wolverine and Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees. This portrayal lacks freshness.

The constraints in play are a stale character/portrayal, an unwanted sequel and the concept of superhero fatigue (a topic we will debate in detail tomorrow). Given those parameters, I always believed there was a distinct possibility that The Wolverine would bomb. The assets weighing in the movie's favor are the persistent appeal of Jackman, the passionate love of the character of Wolverine and a concept befitting the eternal nature of the titular protagonist.

While critics are quick to point out that this opening is proportionately lower in scale than Iron Man 3 and Man of Steel, I believe those comparisons are every bit as incorrect as evaluating The Wolverine relative to RIPD. This release is the only mid-sized comic book blockbuster on the schedule this summer. While the opening weekend does fall short of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, it is in line with X-Men: First Class, which I consider to be similar in terms of disadvantages faced. After all, X-Men: The Last Stand was also a horrifically terrible movie. The X-Men reboot opened to $55.1 million while The Wolverine, effectively a reboot, has debuted to only $2 million less while costing 25% less. I believe that if we evaluate the movie under only that parameter, it is a solid win.

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