It took the combination of James Bond and Charlie Brown to save the box office after a disastrous few weekends of flops.
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The new James Bond movie “Spectre” overcame lukewarm reviews to triumph at the North American box office, earning a whopping $73 million on its debut weekend, industry estimates showed Sunday.
Spectre, which scored $9.1 million on 374 IMAX screens, received a mixed reception from critics, with a 62% approval rating on RottenTomatoes.com.
Josh Greenstein, president, Worldwide Marketing and Distribution for Sony Pictures, said, “We are thrilled by the staggering numbers coming in from all corners of the globe, and we are very proud to be able to bring this legendary franchise to new heights”. “For a franchise that’s over 50 years old, it’s really an astounding achievement”.
Though SPECTRE was the highest-opening movie ever when it debuted in the U.K. last weekend, it was the second-highest debut ever for a James Bond movie in the United States.
The No. 2 movie was 20th Century Fox’s The Peanuts Movie, which grossed an impressive $45 million.
Director Steve Martino and screenwriter/producer Craig Schulz, son of Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, carefully developed a film that honored fans and the initial box 0ffice signs are good. It earned $2.8 million in China, though its opening there was considered to be a “soft” one. And if not? Streaming rights, home video and video-on-demand sales should push it over the top. Its domestic total is getting closer to the $200 million milestone, as its current total rests at $197.1. Kutcher’s movie tallied just over $16.1 million while Fassbender is now up to a bittersweet $16.6 million.
Overall, things are looking up at the box office. The top five were rounded out by Jack Black in “Goosebumps” and Steven Spielberg’s Cold War thriller “Bridge of Spies”, starring Tom Hanks. “Skyfall” became the first film in the 007 series to gross more than US$1 billion. That made the weekend the best one at the box office since mid-July.
“Brooklyn”, a 1950s-set immigrant story starring Saoirse Ronan, took in a respectable $181,000 from five theaters this weekend after opening Wednesday.
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The big lesson here, from both the art-house failures and the big-budget bombs, is that you can’t force people to see movies they’re not interested in.
