Sony has obvious cause for cheering at Ron Howard‘s Angels and Demons having pulled down an estimated $16.6 million yesterday (i.e., Friday) in 3,527 theaters and who-knows-how-many screens.

That’s $12 million less, of course, than The Da Vinci Code‘s opening-day haul three years ago. It made a reported $77.1 million for the weekend, so figure Angels and Demons to do a bit more than half that by Sunday night. $41 million and change.

I’ll give Demons points for being less talky and faster paced than Da Vinci Code. Howard moves it along at high crank. But watching and submitting to this feels like whirlings inside an asylum — like you’re trapped in a crazy steroid game in Dan Brown‘s head. And yet I couldn’t get into a hate mode. That seems to be the general reaction, i.e., “it’s pretty bad but I didn’t mind it.”