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Kim Hollis: Let's Be Cops, a comedy featuring New Girl stars Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr., earned $17.8 million this weekend and has a $26.2 million total since its Wednesday opening. What do you think about this result?

Brett Ballard-Beach: With a $17 million budget, this has its feet firmly planted in the win column. Although once again, by opening this mid-week and allowing not-so-hot word of mouth 48 hours to take hold, this was denied the chance to take at least the runner-up slot for the weekend and, not inconceivably, swipe the top spot from the Turtles. I think the big winner of August has turned out to be next summer's Jurassic World, whose leads Chris Pratt and Jake Johnson have now both anchored unexpectedly big big-screen hits.

Bruce Hall: Is "vindication" too strong a word here? Let’s Be Cops has been savaged by critics, who smelled blood when the film was not screened in advance. This, combined with some truly awful trailers, suggested a brainless and indifferently made summer comedy tailor made to shave months off your life and points off your IQ.

And apparently, that's exactly what audiences were in the mood for this weekend, despite some unfortunate law enforcement related news in the headlines over the past week. But there was never any doubt what kind of movie this was going to be, and clearly nobody who saw it took it so seriously.

What we should take seriously is the fact that Let’s Be Cops, despite lacking in comparable star power, opened similarly or superior to such recent misfires such as Sex Tape, Blended, and A Million Ways to Die at the Box Office in the West. Even more important, Let's Be Cops has already covered its production budget. Being the top new release of the week is gravy.

Come to think of it, "vindication" might be an understatement.

Edwin Davies: This is a very good opening but, like Brett, I can't help but think that the mid-week opening prevented Let's Be Cops from getting the glory of being number two or even number one at the box office. That's probably not that big of deal since the film has recouped its modest budget, which is impressive in itself since, as has been pointed out, Damon Wayans Jr. and Jake Johnson aren't the biggest stars at the moment, but the bragging rights and the headlines could have been good for another couple of million further down the line.

Kim Hollis: Given the budget and the fact that most people aren’t really familiar with Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. (their loss), this is a stellar result. It’s certain to be a profitable venture for the studio, and negative reviews and word-of-mouth didn’t impact it much if at all. And it gets to claim superiority over The Expendables 3, too.

Max Braden: I think that's a decent result. Obviously it falls short of the $35-36 million opening buddy cop movies 21 Jump Street in the spring of 2012 and The Other Guys in August 2010, but those two movies had better movie star weight. Let's Be Cops won the weekend among the new movies, but given that two holdovers beat it and it had weak reviews, I think this opening will be a brief victory followed by a steep drop off. I could see it picking up in rental business later on.

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