‘Spectre’ Remains Atop North American Box Office

Even though many predicted that none of this weekend’s new releases were going to dislodge “Spectre” and “The Peanuts Movie” from the top two spots, those films still surprised.

Those numbers pushed its three-week total to $130 million at the US box office and $413 million internationally, meaning that it’s eclipsed $500 million at the global box office in less than a month. Coopers took in $8.4 million and the Antonio Banderas led The 33 registered a debut of $5.8 million. Its main competition was the second weekend of “The Peanuts Movie” and a lackluster crop of new releases such as the Chilean mining drama “The 33” and the faith-based football film “My All American”. Craig, who stars as super spy James Bond for the fourth time, had spoken in interviews about moving on from the 007 character, but with Spectre sure to hang around the box office top five for weeks to come, may have second thoughts as he sees his popularity and his bank account soar. The Peanuts Movie should be able to work its way to at least $135 million. Acquired by Aviron Pictures for almost $1 million, the picture took in an estimated $1.4 million this weekend from 1,565 screens, $2 million less than projections.

“This is your obligatory, wacky, dysfunctional, family Christmas comedy with a few niblets of drama for poignancy”.

In its second weekend, Spectre earned an estimated $35.4 million from 3,929 screens.

Ridley Scott’s The Martian continued to stay high up on the box office chart in its 7th outing after crossing the $200-M mark domestically Thursday.

Hotel Transylvania 2 enjoyed another week in the top ten with $2.3 million. The Fox backed adaptation of Charles Schulz’s iconic comic strip about Snoopy and Charlie Brown has earned US$82.5 million stateside. In order to keep good relations going with Angelina Jolie-Pitt, Universal released her latest directorial effort By The Sea which stars her and husband Brad Pitt but was met with audience indifference.

That places the film 21 percent ahead of the 171.5 million dollars grossed by last year’s “Interstellar” after 45 days of wide release and 14 percent behind the 240.4 million dollars 45-day gross of 2013’s “Gravity”. Indian romantic drama Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, which loosely adapts The Prince And The Pauper, scored a solid win for itself, making a rare Bollywood entry into the USA top 10 at eighth, taking home $2.4 million from just 286 screens. A domestic final in the area of $220M may result for Spectre which has been generating decent but not stellar buzz from ticket buyers.