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Kim Hollis: The Boxtrolls, the latest offering from Laika Animation, earned $17.3 million this weekend. What do you think of this result?

Jay Barney: This opening is okay. It is a tad disappointing. Based on ParaNorman and Coraline, there is a significant chance Boxtrolls gets decent holds over the next few weeks. It will have to work to make back its budget.

I guess I am lukewarm about its $17 million debut because I don't see the competition as being that great, and the numbers probably could have been higher. This film's only real direct competition at this point is Dolphin Tale 2. That film has been out for a few weeks and never really received much attention. Prior to that you have to go all the way back to Guardians of the Galaxy or Turtles to find anything that even remotely resembles competition in the market place. Maybe I am being a bit harsh, but it just feels like money left on the table.

Perhaps my comments are too negative about the reception of this film, and more negative about a marketplace that has virtually ignored child friendly films for a few months now. I might be missing one, but it seems like the Planes sequel was the last animated film released....and that was way back in July.

Edwin Davies: I think this is a very strong result considering how limited the appeal of stop-motion animation seems to be, especially the kind of dark style that Laika use. For whatever reasons, audiences find stop-motion more alienating than other forms of animation, so the ceiling for The Boxtrolls was a lot lower than it might have been had it been made using CG animation. That it opened higher than either Coraline or ParaNorman, even if by a fairly small margin, suggests that the Laika brand is one that has a small but consistent core audience of people who really dig what they do. Whether that audience will grow enough to make them a major player remains to be seen, but this opening suggests that they have developed a certain amount of goodwill over their last three features.

Felix Quinonez: I think it's great and perhaps it shows that Laika's brand appeal is growing. I think stop motion animation's appeal is too limited to really cross over. And I think The Boxtrolls actually looks a little creepy, so I was surprised that it opened higher than Coraline and Paranorman.

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