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Not enough people made Clint's day.

Kim Hollis: The Trouble With the Curve, a baseball movie featuring Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams and Justin Timberlake, debuted with $12.2 million this weekend. How should Warner Bros. feel about this result?

Edwin Davies: They should probably feel sort of okay about it, though they should reserve judgment for further down the road. Whilst a step down from Moneyball (a film it has been compared to and contrasted against numerous times over the last few days) and Eastwood's last starring role, Gran Torino, this strikes me as the sort of film that will play well with older audiences over the coming weeks. When all is said and done, it might be able to turn a decidedly decent opening into a solid final total if the word-of-mouth is good. That would require audience reaction to be stronger than the critical reaction, but even if it doesn't turn into a Hope Springs-style success, it should still do fairly well.

Bruce Hall: If not for a certain chair, I wonder if we might have had a straight up three-way tie for first place this week? We'll never know, but this is the movie most people expected to win the weekend and since it didn't, I suppose that's the first thing you really have to consider. The second is the roughly $30 million budget. But Clint Eastwood commands an older audience, and out of the top three finishers this weekend this one might end up having the best legs. Not a strong opening, but hardly a debacle. That distinction goes to the next film we'll discuss.

Matthew Huntley: I would think the WB execs are feeling disappointed, and rightly so. Trouble with the Curve has ample star power, topical subject matter (especially for this time of year), and it had the most buzz going into the weekend. I guess it just goes to show, as with any sports game, that box office results can't always be called. Still, I think Edwin is right to compare it to Hope Springs, which went on to gross nearly four times its opening weekend, and it was vying for the same audience. If Trouble follows the same path, we could see it get as high as $50 million, give or take, which is not bad, but probably well below expectations.

Felix Quinonez: Although I don't think this was ever going to be a huge opener, it still seems like a bit of a letdown. Most people, myself included, thought this would win the weekend so coming in third has to be a bit disappointing. I was really expecting it to open at the same level or at least close to Moneyball. It certainly had the star power to do it. It's true its target audience leads us to think it might have stronger legs than the other openers but I wonder if its weak reviews will negate that a bit.

Jason Barney: I'd agree this has to be seen as a bit of a miss, at least in the first few days. This was a totally winnable weekend, and when marketing the weekends two and three of a film are taken into account, I doubt we will see too many ads saying "The #3 film in America!!!" That said, Eastwood does have a certain amount of draw, and this film could play well over the next couple of weeks. Another factor may be the type of folks who see this. Perhaps the daily numbers will be fairly strong, giving it solid holds, due to the older crowd going during the day. One final thing that might come into play is the younger sports crowd, who know about all of Eastwood's westerns and status, deciding to go and see a baseball film in the middle of the playoff races. The expansion of the wildcard has helped a number of cities remain in the hunt for a post season spot, and it wouldn't surprise me if this became a date movie, of sorts, for some young couples. Not saying it will break records, but I wouldn't be surprised if this helps it earn a few more dollars.

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