Spectre smashes British box office records

The eagerly-anticipated film, which reunited lead actor Daniel Craig and director Sam Mendes, was received well by critics, earning itself five-star reviews from newspapers The Guardian and The Telegraph, that labelled it “stylish and sexy” and “a swaggering show of confidence”.

Gary Barber, MGM chairman and CEO, added: “What an incredible thrill it is for us at MGM to see how James Bond continues to deliver such excitement to his fans”.

Campaigners in Mexico, where the opening scenes of SPECTRE were filmed, have criticised the Mexican government for offering tax incentives to the makers of the latest Bond movie.

However, the South Korean company would had bolster the marketing budget to promote the Spectre to no less than $50 million, which is about $32 million more than what Sony offered in the first place.

In the Netherlands, Spectre grabbed 3.3 million Euro ($3.7 million), surpassing the record set by Skyfall and bringing its cume to $3.9 million including previews. The film is up to more than $80 million in grosses in just one week in the United Kingdom, beating the previous record holderHarry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban.

When asked who he thought should become the next Bond, Craig said: “I don’t care as long as they’re good”. Producers denied reports that the script was changed at the request of executives from Sony Pictures and MGM Studios, eager to save money after the government offered $14 million in tax incentives in return for a better image.

The $105,000 per-screen average from 47 IMAX screens showing “Spectre” was the highest ever for an opening weekend, topping the $760,000 of “Transformers Dark of the Moon” managed in 2011.

The world is going insane for James Bond, but Kiwi fans must wait to discover what all the fuss is about.

The Daniel Craig-era of James Bond films has introduced a lot of new elements to the franchise, but certainly one of the most significant is continuity and a more substantial connectivity between films. Elsewhere across Europe major records were broken in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway, where the movie outperformed its predecessor by roughly 30 percent.