“Spectre” – the 24th James Bond movie produced by Eon Productions – opened with an estimated $73 million in sales this weekend, according to projections from Sony Pictures. Spectre, which stars Haute 100 lister Daniel Craig, $73m (£48.5m) between Friday and Sunday, according to early estimates. Craig and director Sam Mendes, neither of whom has had another movie release since Skyfall in 2012, now have two Bond debuts open above $70 million, helping to see the franchise grow financially, well outpacing ticket price inflation.
Advertisement
China, where “Skyfall” took in US$59.2 million, could be the difference maker. Distributor Sony gave an absurdly lowball prediction of $65 million that allowed it to spin this weekend’s results as outperforming expectations, but most tracking services predicted the movie would open between $80 and $85 million. Looks like things are back on track for a strong finish to the year.
James Bond and Charlie Brown couldn’t be more different, but both have a license to print money at the box office.
“They obviously took their time with this project and did it right”, says Jeff Bock, box office analyst for Exhibitor Relations. The previous film in the long-running franchise bowed to $88.4 million, but had better reviews and benefited from being the only new wide-release in its opening weekend.
On American soil, this year Bond’s largest competition was the family-friendly The Peanuts Movie, which came in second place at $45 million. The other victor at the box office, “The Peanuts Movie” did a few business too, but it failed to win over the public’s heart because James Bond won it over for him.
The Peanuts Movie centres on animated pals Snoopy and Charlie Brown, made famous by illustrator Charles M Schulz in his comic strip of the same name. “Brooklyn”, “Spotlight”, and “Trumbo” all had strong first-weekend earnings with “Spotlight” having the best with an estimated $300,000-plus in five theaters ($60,000 per-screen).
Matt Damon’s The Martian continued to do well, holding on to third place with $9.3 million while Jack Black’s Goosebumps also performed strongly with $6.9 million to take fourth position. With stiff competition on the horizon, “Spectre” doesn’t stand a chance of nearing the domestic total of “Skyfall” ($304.3 million), but it’s still likely to bow around $200 million.
Advertisement
Coming in fifth was the Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks’ spy thriller Bridge of Spies (DreamWorks) with $6.1 million and $55 million grossed in its first month.
