I'm not sure Disney would ever have wanted their first full on-their-own foray into the realm of 3D animation compared with the fruit of their partnership with Pixar. After all, the Pixar/Disney team not only forged the medium genre, their efforts have lead the way, improving right up to last year's smash hit The Incredibles. Yet, if Disney didn't want them compared, why on earth would they release Chicken Little, their first solo venture, on the anniversary of the Incredible's release?

This weekend last year the heroic Incredible family took to theaters and dazzled audiences with its clever story telling and amazing visual style. Chicken Little made an incredible entrance of his own, clearing over $40 million, more than anything else has on opening weekend since Charlie and the Chocolate Factory opened at $56 million nearly four months ago. It's an impressive feat given the deflated nature of movie ticket sales but not nearly what Disney was probably hoping for. Incredibles banked $70 million on its opening weekend last year and went on to bring in over $600 million world wide. Given this first weekend's turn out, Chicken Little will be lucky to cover half that. Not great news for a department trying to revitalize itself in a world where its already running just to catch up.

The other new release this weekend, Jarhead, also did fairly well making nearly $30 million. No doubt its seemingly anti-war previews brought in most of the audience, but that's still better than most movies have been able to do lately. Jarhead didn't fare well with most critics, many of whom cited its failure on the fact that it's a war movie that never really goes to war. Does that make it boring, or just another movie that has the undesired effect of making you have to think? Either way, the word of mouth it gets will tell the tale next week. We'll see if it has staying power or quickly slips into box office oblivion.

Chicken Little has even more to fear next week than Jarhead given that children's book action/adventure film Zathura hits theaters. It's been on a sort of good will tour over the last couple of weekends previewing in venues all over the country. With it's warm reception from early critics and snazzy trailers, it's poised to give little chicken a run for his money.

Next week will also see Get Rich or Die Tryin' and Derailed, neither of which I expect to make much of a splash. No, everyone will be clinging to their ticket money for the follwing weekend when two big names, Harry Potter and Johnny Cash come to town, hopefully bringing some box office restoration with them.