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September wakes from its mighty slumber, only to realize it's almost time to go away for a year.

Kim Hollis: Eagle Eye, the latest from the Shia LaBeouf/D.J. Caruso tandem, outperformed their previous film Disturbia by earning $29.2 million. Are you pleased, unhappy with, or indifferent to this result?

David Mumpower: I was expecting this title to make slightly over $30 million, meaning this total is actually a bit lower than I had projected. Midway through August, I reviewed the remaining releases over the next two months. This was the only true heavyweight I saw on the schedule in that period, and it has become the best weekend performance of any release since the first weekend of August (The Dark Knight's third frame). Paramount has to be pleased with such a result.

Scott Lumley: $29.2 million is pretty good considering that the recent box office kings have all been in the $12-$13 million range. I actually think this has a good chance to hang onto the top spot for a week or two.

Tim Briody: That's certainly waking up the box office after a rather weary month and a half. If anyone's disappointed in this performance, I would like to smack them around a bit.

Shane Jenkins: I must like getting smacked around, because I am going to agree with David here. It's a perfectly fine number, but I was anticipating a $35 million plus weekend when I saw the ads over the summer. I figured this would be the first big thing to get teenage butts back in the theater, and it is, but just not quite to the degree I was expecting.

Kim Hollis: I think it's pretty much right on target and meeting expectations. I'm sure the studio was probably hoping for a little bit more, but if this can have legs like Disturbia, it will be fine in the end. I'm not sure it can have that kind of staying power, though, as it's a different time of year and we're seeing some epic drops from week-to-week even in movies that you wouldn't expect.





Reagen Sulewski: I think it's clear that this generation has chosen its acting idol. To which I will say: I am so disappointed in you.

Jason Lee: I agree with Tim. Let's consider that this is the biggest BO performance since The Dark Knight brought in $42 mil back on the August 1st - 3rd weekend. I'll even go out on a limb and say that no film that will open above $30 million until High School Musical 3 and Saw V come out four weeks from now. Paramount has to be very pleased with this total.

Daron Aldridge: This one is pretty much where I expected it to be, especially given the September history that Max pointed out. I couldn't be happier because the box office has been downright depressing the few weeks. The film's accurately ubiquitous tagline of "We are everywhere" seemed to be the goal of the marketing push because it seems like every show on my DVR had at least one Eagle Eye commercial that I, of course, skipped over.

Sean Collier: The "biggest weekend winner in a while" point is both alliterative and noteworthy, but Shane is right - where are all the teenagers? School's been back in for six weeks now. Shouldn't every 14-year-old boy in the world have asked the cute girl in Spanish class out by now? Eagle Eye totally should've seen a $10 million awkward first date bump. I was expecting more in the $35-$40 million range as well.

Max Braden: I don't know why Shane and Sean would have expected it to open above $35 million. A September release opening above $30 million is a rare thing - Eagle Eye ranks #4 on the historical unadjusted list for the month. I'd be pleased with that result except that I saw it and the screenplay is entirely undeserving of that kind of money. The marketing people should be pleased they avoided revealing the premise.

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