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Kim Hollis: The Other Woman, the female-targeted comedy featuring Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann and Kate Upton, finished in first place this weekend with $24.8 million. How was Fox able to achieve such a solid result?

Matthew Huntley: Like most industry observers, I'm surprised by this figure, especially since the trailer made the movie look awful (and judging by the critical reception, that's exactly what it is [although I haven't seen it yet]) and b ecause Cameron Diaz's drawing power in the past few years has waned. Therefore, I would have pegged The Other Woman to open more in the $14-$16 million range. But if I had to attribute a reason to its mid-20s debut, I'd say it was mostly due to the under-served female demographic, who hasn't had a movie to themselves since the rom coms of February and Divergent, which has been out for more than a month. The past few weeks have been dominated by male or family-oriented fare, and perhaps The Other Woman was an option that women felt was finally worth making a trip to the movies for.

It's hard to say where the movie will go from here and how strong its legs will be. On the one hand, it will still have its audience all to itself (even with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 opening); on the other, its reviews are terrible and it could be slammed by poor word-of-mouth. I guess we'll know in a week.

Jason Barney: This is a really impressive intro weekend on a number of fronts. First and foremost it blew expectations out of the water, nearly doubling the forecast of BOP’s own Reagan Sulewski. To be fair, predicting the performance of a new entry into the market place on a weekly basis is not easy, but this is far above everyone’s expectations. Second, movie goers are saturated with options right now. Last weekend featured four new openers. Two weeks ago there were three. The Other Woman had its own calendar competition as it was one of three to hit the big screen this week. Third, the weekend prior to the unofficial start of summer is usually one of the dartboards for the movie industry. An assortment of projects slide into this slot. Last year it was Pain & Gain and The Big Wedding. In 2012 there were four options, Pirates, Band of Misfits, Safe, The Raven, and The Five Year Engagement. The first weekend of May has received event status with the unofficial arrival of the big budget blockbusters, and the last weekend of April, generally, represents a bit of a sigh for the movie industry.

What The Other Woman has managed to achieve here is significant. It has latched onto the counter-programming success of late spring which is very likely to expand into the action movies of early summer. When Amazing Spider-Man 2 opens next weekend, this will be a viable option for those tired of the superhero mania. In past years The Big Wedding and the Five Year Engagement were really not able to garner the counter programming interest, but there have been a few breakout successes like this. In 2010 Date Night really did well. In 2011 it was Bridesmaids.

This $40 million film should have little trouble making its budget back.

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