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Felix Quinonez: I think this result disproves the idea that the Muppets brand had been reignited with the previous film. Although the 2011 movie was by no means a smash, it still did very well. But I think that had more to do with the fact that the movie itself looked interesting, got great reviews, and played to the nostalgia factor. Of course a lot of people took that to mean that now any Muppets movie would make a lot of money. Obviously that's not the case. The movies still have to hook the audiences and the fact is Muppets most Wanted did not look interesting at all. It looked like something that could (should) have gone straight to DVD and audiences ignored it.

Kim Hollis: I think it's interesting that Brett brings up the original film's smash success, because The Muppets followed by Muppets Most Wanted really reminds me a lot of The Muppet Movie followed by The Great Muppet Caper. Both The Muppet Movie and The Muppets played on those unique qualities that make the Muppets special to audiences, complete with whimsical story lines, fun cameos (it might not seem that impressive now, but Steve Martin, Bob Hope, Milton Berle and Mel Brooks would have appealed to adults in much the same way that Jason Segel and Amy Adams were draws a couple of years ago) and delightful soundtracks. The Great Muppet Caper and Muppets Most Wanted are both capers where a muppet is wrongfully accused of a crime. Way back in the late '70s and early '80s, I was a lot less interested in Great Muppet Caper than The Muppet Movie, and the same thing happened with The Muppets and Muppets Most Wanted. I think that sense was universal across potential film viewers. It's not the end of the world, though. Disney will make money off merchandise and home video.

David Mumpower: I generally despise the term "television actor" because I believe that television has evolved into the superior storytelling medium in the streaming media era. Despite feeling this way, I still believe that swapping out Jason Segel and Amy Adams for Tina Fey and Ty Burrell is a casting decision that relegates the sequel to second tier status. If the production team itself identifies a Muppets movie was as the lesser product, why should consumers feel otherwise? And that is only half of the problem. The other issue is that Muppets Most Wanted was released less than two and a half years after The Muppets. Disney wanted the box office (and ancillary toy sales revenue) from another Muppets movie. They did not take the appropriate amount of time to create an exceptional story, something the last movie had. In every way possible, this sequel felt needless and derivative. It was a cynical creation involving characters who are the opposite of cynical. Simply stated, Disney did not protect their brand, a rarity for them.

Kim Hollis: God's Not Dead, a faith-based film from Pure Flix Entertainment, took fourth place with $9.2 million and a per-screen average of almost $12,000. How did this movie break out?

Edwin Davies: We know that faith-based releases benefit from grassroots campaigns and from churches telling their congregations to see the film. Considering how little marketing there was for this in traditional venues - case in point: there's a couple of theaters near me showing it yet I hadn't heard a single thing about the film until I saw it mentioned in the Weekend Forecast - it seems that this approach worked once again, as did the presence of a cast member of Duck Dynasty, which is apparently a reason to see a film now, rather than to cast every copy of it into the sea. It probably most benefited from its proximity to Son of God in the release schedule, which fired up the under-served audience and made them more likely to seek out other similar titles. Whenever a film that targets a specific demographic does well, it seems to raise awareness of similar titles and, while it doesn't guarantee success in the long term, it certainly seems to lead to spikes in the immediate aftermath.

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