The film, from Sony, MGM and Eon Productions, returns Daniel Craig for the fourth time as 007.
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Bond, James Bond and Brown, Charlie Brown, remained the most popular choices at the multiplexes this weekend as Spectre and The Peanuts Movie quickly sent an unappealing trio of newcomers -Love the Coopers, The 33 and My All-American- packing.
James Bond is back on top, after “Spectre” led the USA box office for the second weekend in a row.
Also steady in its second weekend was The Peanuts Movie, which held at #2 with $24.2 million.
“The 33”, about the 33 Chilean miners who were trapped in mine for more than two months in 2010, rounded out the top five movies at the box office. The French-flavored movie, which stars real-life spouses Jolie Pitt and Brad Pitt as a couple coming apart, received over $95,000 in ticket sales, nearly $40,000 below its first weekend projections, for a per-screen average of about $9,500. The third film directed by Jolie Pitt, who also wrote the script, “By the Sea” was made for a modest $10 million, so it won’t hurt Universal much, but proved surprisingly unappealing to moviegoers despite starring two of Hollywood’s biggest stars. It took in $8.4 million for CBS Films. It carries a gargantuan $250 million price tag.
With an estimated $48M this weekend, Sony/MGM/Eon’s Spectre has bonded with Chinese audiences. The Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg spy drama has now grossed $61.7 million domestically and $80.9 million worldwide from a budget of $40 million.
While there are seriously blockbuster-friendly action setpieces aplenty here and a cast that can actually act, there’s just not the personal punch of Skyfall here, and although Craig is suitably cold-eyed, vaguely psycho and just a bit up-himself one more time, we just can’t care about him the same way. Its cume has hit $1.8 million. The haul for the frame cozies up to Skyfall’s entire Middle Kingdom run of $59M and comes a week before The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 zips into the market. The drama eked out $5.8 million from 2,452 theaters – a poor showing and less than the $8 million to $10 million it was expected to generate.
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This weekend’s final new wide release failed to crack the top 10, and My All American, starring Finn Wittrock and Aaron Eckhart in the story of Texas football legend Freddie Steinmark, only earned $1.4 million in 1,565 locations.
