James Bond’s SPECTRE and The Peanuts Movie Give the Box Office a Boost

The new James Bond movie and The Peanuts Movie ruled the box office

After a horrible few weeks of bombs and disappointments, the box office picked up again with the release of two higher profile studio movies that easily dominated over the returning movies, many that have been playing in theaters for weeks. 

The 25th installment of MGM Studios and Sony Pictures‘ James Bond franchise SPECTRE, once again starring Daniel Craig as 007 and directed by Sam Mendes from Skyfall, opened with an estimated $73 million in its first weekend in 3,929 theaters or $18,580 per theater. Co-starring Christoph Waltz, Lea Seydoux, Dave Bautista,  Ralph Fiennes, Monica Bellucci, Ben Whishaw and Naomie Harris, it grossed $28 million on Friday including $5.4 million in Thursday previews, which was already down from the $30 million grossed opening day for the previous installment, 2012’s Skyfall. It ended up grossing $17 million less domestically opening weekend than Skyfall despite opening better in most international territories over the past two weeks. SPECTRE received a decent “A-” CinemaScore, which is also lower than the rating Skyfall scored.

Overseas, SPECTRE opened in 71 additional markets after grossing over $100 million internationally before its North American release, and it added another $117.8 million to that amount. New territories included Mexico (one of the film’s shooting locations) where it grossed $4.5 million, two times the opening for Skyfall, Brazil ($2.9 million), Russia ($5.8 million), Germany ($20.1 million) and many more. It also held well in previous markets like the UK where it grossed another $21.3 million in its second weekend taking it to $100.2 million in the UK alone. 

SPECTRE grossed $15.4 million on IMAX screens worldwide this weekend, which was slightly higher than the IMAX opening for Skyfall, with $9.1 million of that coming from 374 domestic IMAX screens and its international IMAX total reaching $12 million. 

With $200 million grossed worldwide this weekend including the North American take, that brings SPECTRE’s global gross to $300 million in just two weeks. It still has 40% of the international market where it still hasn’t opened to go, including China, Japan, India, Korea and Australia.

Bridesmaids and Spy director Paul Feig was one of the producers on 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios‘ animated update of Charles M. Schultz’s beloved comic strip characters for The Peanuts Movie, which opened on Friday with $12.1 million in 3,897 theaters, which it built upon Saturday to gross an estimated $45 million in its opening weekend, or $11,547 per theater. That’s a similar opening to 2008’s Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who, which went on to gross $154.5 million, and while The Peanuts Movie has the Thanksgiving weekend to give it a nice bump, it also has to face the latest movie from Pixar, The Good Dinosaur that weekend. Its “A” CinemaScore is a good sign that moviegoers enjoyed the movie enough that it can help its word-of-mouth as the only family film until then. 

After dominating the box office for most of October, Ridley Scott’s The Martian, starring Matt Damon, dropped to third place with $9.3 million, still well ahead of the other returning movies. With $197 million grossed so far, it should cross $200 million sometime in the coming week, becoming the seventh movie this year to reach that benchmark. It’s already director Ridley Scott’s highest-grossing movie domestically, having passed 2000’s Oscar-winning Gladiator last week. It’s also the most successful movie at the box office since July’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. 

Sony Pictures‘ adaptation of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps, starring Jack Black, took fourth place with $7 million (down 29%) with $66.4 million grossed in its first month. 

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.

Sony Pictures Animation’s animated hit Hotel Transylvania 2 followed with $3.5 million and $161.3 million and Bradley Cooper’s cooking drama Burnt (The Weinstein Company) took seventh place with $3 million (down 40%) and $10.2 million total. 

Vin Diesel’s action-fantasy The Last Witch Hunter (Lionsgate) took eighth place with $2.7 million (down 49%) for a total of $23.6 million in three weeks.

The rest of the Top 10 grossed less than $2 million, with Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro’s workplace comedy The Intern (Warner Bros.) taking ninth place. It has grossed $71.4 million domestically and another $108 million overseas, which is very good for a relatively low-key comedy.

The Top 10 movies in the November kick-off weekend brought in an estimated $152 million, which was $10 million more than last year when Disney Animation’s Big Hero 6 and Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar dominated the box office in a similar way as this weekend’s two new movies. (For comparison, the Top 2 movies this weekend earned twice as much as the entire Top 10 last weekend.)

There were a lot of high-profile limited releases kicking off November, many of which debuted on the festival circuit months earlier.

The widest limited release was the Drew Barrymore-Toni Collette dramedy Miss You Already (Roadside Attractions), which opened in 384 theaters but only averaged $1,500 per theater for an opening weekend of $572,000.

Tom McCarthy’s ensemble journalism drama Spotlight (Open Road), starring Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber and Stanley Tucci, fared better, opening in five theaters in New York and L.A. Friday where it made $302,000, or $60,455 per theater, setting itself up for a nationwide expansion on November 20.

Fox Searchlight’s Brooklyn, starring Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen and Domnhall Gleeson, also opened in five theaters on Wednesday where it grossed $181,000, or $36,200 per theater, over the weekend with $237,300 grossed so far.

Bryan Cranston played Dalton Trumbo (Bleecker Street) in the period dramedy about the blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter, directed by Jay Roach and co-starring Diane Lane, Helen Mirren, Louis CK, Michael Stuhlbarg, John Goodman and many more. It brought in $77,000 in five New York and L.A. theaters for an average of $15,446 per theater.