The number-one film over the weekend was Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) He's Just Not That Into You. Quite honestly, I didn't audiences would be that into this film (no pun, of course), but I guess I underestimated the power of the marketing campaign that supported the project. The quirky little ads may have predicted a film that would find a decent amount of success with the hip crowd, but at $27 million, Into You definitely found a lot more than a decent amount of success.

Last week's top finisher, News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) thriller Taken, dropped to second place, and spot number three was occupied by Coraline, a spooky fantasy from the rich mind of Neil Gaiman (if you haven't already, be sure to check out his terrific novel, American Gods). The stop-motion picture, which comes from General Electric's (NYSE: GE) Focus Features, grossed about $16 million. I suppose that isn't too bad, considering it's not the most mainstream thing out there.

Going back to the Panther project, it's interesting to note that the first film grossed about $8 million more than the sequel in its opening weekend and went on to a total haul of over $80 million domestically. Adding in international revenues, the first Panther had a worldwide gross of over $150 million. I don't consider that such great financial performance considering that the movie reportedly had a budget of $80 million (I imagine that Martin's compensation was pretty high).

Now that Sony seems to have bombed with the sequel, one has to wonder if the studio will want to continue on with the series. At the very least, it may want to consider dumping Martin as the lead (assuming that's contractually possible) and getting a cheaper, lesser-known talent. No matter how big a star might be (and, in Martin's case, he arguably doesn't hold that much sway over younger generations), there's no guarantee that celebrity alone equals boffo box office.

Disclosure: I own GE; positions can change without notice.