James Bond Shakes Things Up With $73 Million

The 24th film in the 53-year old series stars cost a reported $250 million to create and Daniel Craig as the secret agent that is dapper.

Contrary to earlier reports claiming that this will be his last portrayal of famed spy James Bond and that there might be a new 007 casted on the block, actor Daniel Craig clarified his earlier comments, saying “maybe I’ll make another one”.

Distributor Sony, which co-produced the film with Eon Productions and MGM, tried to manage expectations going into the weekend, predicting an opening in the $60m (£40m) range.

“The performance of “Spectre” is truly astonishing when you consider that the first James Bond film hit theaters over 50 years ago”, said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Rentrak. The young adult adventure film opened in the People’s Republic, picking up US$19.8 million for the weekend.

Bond had a great weekend despite heavy competition from another iconic character, Charlie Brown.

On American soil, this year Bond’s largest competition was the family-friendly The Peanuts Movie, which came in second place at $45 million. Hotel Transylvania 2, in the meantime, is finally happy to report its costs…with an estimated $3.6 million boosting it to the break-even point domestically on its $80 million budget, the film has proven to be a major success counting foreign box office, with $404.2 million in worldwide gross. The massive-display retelling of Charles M. Schulz’s basic cartoon earned a stellar A CinemaScore, and Peanuts’ huge debut could have eaten into Spectre’s viewers. The cross-generational appeal was no accident for the Fox marketing team, who were looking to appeal to all ages.

“We were everywhere”, he noted of the campaign. That total makes it already the eighth-highest-grossing Bond movie of all time, a list it will only continue to climb. The top five were rounded out by Jack Black in “Goosebumps” and Steven Spielberg’s Cold War thriller “Bridge of Spies”, starring Tom Hanks. With just 5 screens it pulled a more than $60,000 per venue average for a hot $300,000 start. Not a record compared to the $88 million haul of “Skyfall” back in 2012. Trumbo, starring Bryan Cranston, took in US$77,229 from five cinemas. Here’s the week’s box office roundup. Spectre will also have to deal with a little movie called The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 later this month.

“Spectre” also set records at IMAX Theatres, where the film took in $15.4 million worldwide, beating IMAX’s Skyfall wide-release take of $15.22 million.

Final figures are released on Monday.