Paramount’s Barnyard opens today at 3,311 theatres, according to Box Office Mojo. The film is not doing so well with critics, garnering a rotten 31% at Rotten Tomatoes. The Detroit Free Press complains that the film is “poorly animated and barely scripted”, while Entertainment Weekly notes that the story “swipes too much of its plot from The Lion King”. Not all reviewers are so negative. The Chicago Tribune says the film is a “better-than-average animated feature” and a “sharply scripted effort that, while assembled from familiar elements, does not feel focus-grouped and committeed to death”, and Variety thinks it is an “uplifting coming-of-age yarn spiked with liberal doses of madcap lunacy”. Box Office Mojo predicts a third place finish for Barnyard’s opening weekend with $7.5 million.