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Kim Hollis: One Direction: This Is Us debuted last weekend with $15.8 million over three days. Since then, it has seen steady declines and actually fell 74% from last weekend to have just $4 million this weekend. What do you think of the result for this boy band documentary concert film, which has made $23.9 million so far?

Brett Ballard-Beach: To each (half)generation, a boy band is born. "I liked the 1D in 3D posters" is as astute an observation as I can make about the band and their music. This is probably the best that could have been hoped for in waiting for "so long" to get this to theaters (I have been hearing about it for over a year). They aren't feeling Bieber's high (um, so to speak) nor the Jonas Bros' low and it will definitely make something overseas so I think it's decent. And I hope Mr. Spurlock was well-paid (Maybe he can do a combined sequel to this and Super Size Me for a followup?).

Edwin Davies: I think this is about as good as could have been expected given the time that it was released. Pop music is a fickle mistress, and while One Direction isn't exactly over yet, their fame has probably peaked to an extent and the best time to capitalize on that success would have been probably last year, right as the mania was starting to kick in. The film more than made its budget back after three days and will be pretty much pure profit from here on in, even if it continues to crater. More importantly, the band has a wider international appeal than Bieber or the Jonii had when their films were released, so it'll probably eclipse both of those by the time that everything is said and done.

In summation: If this had been released last year, we'd probably be looking at a $25-30 million plus opening weekend, whereas we're now looking at that as the range for its final domestic total. That says quite a lot about the lightning in a bottle nature of these concert documentaries.

Tim Briody: Edwin, I think the outcome would have been the same regardless of when this was released. One Direction isn't any more or less popular than they were a year ago, and a few weeks ago they had the #2 song in the country based solely on digital sales. They're still a thing, if largely hyped up. The Friday-to-Friday crash was sure impressive, though.

Kim Hollis: I tend to agree that the One Direction film did as well as it was possible for it to do, and the time of release probably didn't have much impact at all. No matter what, teens were going to run out and see it on opening weekend, so we were looking at a short-term box office phenomenon at best. I don't think it was ever going to make much more than $30 million.

David Mumpower: The aspect of time of release that matters from my perspective, Tim, is that every single second the target audience for this grows older. They're like a ticking time bomb of pubescent maturation. One second, One Direction is on the top of the world and the next they are understanding the tragic post-80s existence of Rick Springfield. There is a shelf life on these bands, which is why the Jonas Brothers movie bombed. One Direction avoided that fate but it certainly did not strike while the iron was hot as the Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus movies managed. All in all, I consider the movie a box office win financially but also a bit of a loss in terms of opportunity cost revenue. There was more money available a year ago.

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