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Really, Zac Efron should be in every movie.

Kim Hollis: Charlie St. Cloud, the weeper featuring the totally adorable Zac Efron (don't you dare argue with me) opened to $12.4 million. How should Universal feel about this result?

Josh Spiegel: Disappointed, to say the least. I could've seen this movie performing as well as Dear John did in February, but apparently Efron's adorability only works in lighter movies. I'm obviously not the right audience for the film, but watching these ads just made me think "Why would I ever want to pay to see this movie when I can see a trailer that shows me just about the entire movie?" I've read that there's a little more to the story, but the majority of the film seems to have been encapsulated in 150 seconds. Why pay 10 bucks for the whole movie?

Reagen Sulewski: One of the biggest struggles for young actors is establishing fame out of their big roles. Twilight fans have shown basically no interest in Robert Pattinson without the glitter makeup, and I doubt anyone's running out to see Daniel Radcliffe's next non-Harry Potter role. Efron's done better than most, and at least he's trying to stretch his legs away from the teen idol-type roles so you have to give him that credit. This is a film with virtually no edge to it, though, and that's a very self-limited strategy. He's got to get dirty with his roles sometime soon.

Kim Hollis: I tend to agree that this is probably a disappointment for Universal, despite my own personal affinity for the young Mr. Efron. I'm sure it seemed like a great idea to re-team him with his 17 Again director, but melodramas like these are hit and miss anyway. I do think it's very interesting that his girlfriend, Vanessa Hudgens, had a movie that had been slated to open on the same weekend, but the studio (CBS Films) ran far away from releasing Beastly here. I tend to agree that a February or March opening might have been more appropriate. And I'll certainly admit that the reviews have me figuring it's a wait-for-DVD film, which is probably a bad sign since I'd planned on seeing it in the theater.

David Mumpower: Does this film involve 9/11 in any way? No? Then, I automatically like it better than Remember Me. Still, this is by all accounts a terrible movie that deserves to fail. While I like to give Ms. Hollis grief about her Efron fandom, he seems to be the rare teen idol who has some talent. 17 Again is one of those films that I watch every time it's on. I guess he was trying to broaden his acting chops and the choice of projects was regrettable. $12.4 million is a scary total for a $44 million production yet I was braced for even worse. It won't be in the red anywhere near as much as it probably deserves.

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