The deadzone that is the October box office is a thing of the past as Hollywood ramps up for the holiday season and leading the charge in our weekend box office report is 007, James Bond. The latest flick in the decades-long spy franchise ‘Spectre’ had a massive opening, taking in $73 million in the US, making it the second highest opening for a Bond movie, falling short of the last one, 2012’s ‘Skyfall’. Returning for ‘Spectre’ were ‘Skyfall’ star Daniel Craig and director Sam Mendes to replicate their winning formula. (In the UK, ‘Spectre’ outperformed ‘Skyfall’ making it the biggest 007 opening there.)
In second place was ‘The Peanuts Movie’ which reintroduced the perennial holiday favorite comic strip characters for a new generation. In fact, ‘The Peanuts Movie’ may be the reason that ‘Spectre’ didn’t do quite as well as ‘Skyfall’, which opened against no real competition.
Here is the Top Five:
- Spectre (Sony) – $73M
- The Peanuts Movie (20th Century Fox) – $45M
- The Martian (20th Century Fox) – $9.3M
- Goosebumps (Sony) – $7M
- Bridge of Spies (Disney) – $6.1M
‘Spectre’ should continue to perform well, despite not getting as strong a critical and audience reaction as ‘Skyfall’ did. Next week, its biggest competition is the acclaimed ‘The 33’ based on the 2010 true story miners who became trapped and were then rescued.
Also opening are the Brad Pitt/Angeline Jolie romantic drama ‘By The Sea’ and Christmas comedy ‘Love The Coopers’.
Essentially, it’s a lull week between ‘Spectre’ and November 20th’s ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2‘ which should slay the box office, considering it’s the last shot fans will have to see part of the YA series on the big screen. Then the week after that comes Pixar’s ‘The Good Dinosaur’.
In other words, the rest of the year’s releases sh0uld more than make up for the sluggish last few months.
Be sure to check back next week to see how well ‘Spectre’ holds up.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
