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Max Braden: In addition to what's already been said, I think we're still in an environment where there's a strong desire for prequels and origin stories to expand on a story's universe. But I would attribute it largely to the fear of scary looking dolls, a fear that must be shared by all humans at our core.

David Mumpower: I agree with the majority that Annabelle was treated like a sequel to a very popular horror movie. The fact that there are still a billion ghost hunting programs on network television is a tribute to the popularity of the originators of the premise, Ed and Lorraine Warren. While the Warren number is an abuse of goodwill in this instance since the film does not involve those characters, it does strengthen my belief that the Warrens have become cult figures in the realm of horror cinema. I also agree with Max that a creepy doll never hurts. Magic, the Anthony Hopkins film, remains the scariest movie I have ever seen.

Kim Hollis: Left Behind, a reboot of the rapture series featuring Nicolas Cage in the lead role, earned $6.3 million this weekend. Is this better, worse, or about what you were expecting?

Felix Quinonez: I think it's about as much as I was expecting. Morbid curiosity to see how bad a movie is will only take you so far.

Bruce Hall: Part of me imagined this opening to $47 million, because that many people are as fascinated as I am to behold the continued disintegration of a once respected actor. But the realistic part of me says that since this movie cost about $15 million to make it'll probably eventually break even, which is good.

Because that's why people get into the movie business. To break even.

Edwin Davies: This is fairly awful, but if anything it's slightly better than I was expecting going into the weekend. The Left Behind brand was clearly tarnished somewhat by the Kirk Cameron films, all of which were pretty terrible and were geared solely towards the faithful, so it was going to take a Herculean effort to draw people in to see a newer version. Clearly the curiosity, however morbid, about seeing Nic Cage's career reach a new low provided that boost, though clearly not enough of one to overcome the associations most people have when it comes to Left Behind movies, or the fact that the ads and reviews for this one were awful.

Jason Barney: This was actually lower than I was expecting. I didn't expect this film to do well. However, over the last decade or so there has been fan support for these types of films. So I was a bit surprised when the numbers came in below $10 million. It will probably make its budget back, but it is not going to stick around very long.

Max Braden: The word "million" behind any Nic Cage movie surprises me these days, but I was even more surprised when I watched the trailer and thought, "Hey, that actually doesn't look half bad." It would not surprise me if the success of the recently concluded first season of HBO's "The Leftovers" had something to do with it. Post-apocalyptic movies will always have some sort of draw, religious or not.

David Mumpower: I was rooting for historic failure, so middling failure in terms of opening weekend for a film with a modest budget is a tremendous disappointment. Don't get me wrong. I'm still going to mock it every chance I get, but I feel like the public should have rebuked this monstrosity much more emphatically.

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