Weekend Box Office: Bond and the Beagle Slay the Competition Again

Since there was no love for any of the newcomers, James Bond’s “Spectre” easily won with $35.4 million.

“Spectre” has over all gained a whooping amount of $152.6 million from overseas territories during the weekend. Chilean survival drama film, The 33, remained in fourth place with $1.8 million and is expected to make around $5 million by the end of the weekend.

Spectre has had the benefit of little to no competition, which is probably a better indicator of its current holding power more than anything else. Even though the movie is chock full of edgy content by Bollywood standards, what traumatizes censors there would barely register a yawn from the MPAA.

Peanuts has had a solid two weeks at the box and it should continue to do well that is until, “The Good Dinosaur” takes its turn at the box office and steals all the children away. Considering its limited 280+ location release, its per theater average was $8,300, second only in the top ten to Spectre’s $9,000 average. The key here will be how much hold it has at the box office in the coming weeks. The action ranges from a spectacular opening in Mexico City featuring one of the most ambitious single takes – though I doubt it really is – I’ve ever seen in ANY film to an outrageous Austrian snow chase to a hidden villain’s lair recalling the lairs of villains past.

Without breaking a sweat, Mr. Bond holds on to the No. 1 spot this week, bringing in an estimated $35 million in its second weekend out. The Martian, already Ridley Scott’s highest-grossing film of all time, has yet to hit the Chinese and Japanese box offices, where it will add substantially to its staggering $458.5 million earnings. That movie is, of course, The Martian, which grossed $6.71 million over the weekend.

Surprisingly, the Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt starrer By the Sea failed to create a stir and the movie seems to be dwindling on the box office despite the world’s top couple starring as the main characters. The new Hindi-language film Prem Ratan Dhan Payo opened in eighth place with an estimated $2.4M from 286 theaters for a $8,392 average for FIP. But it has grossed $17.7 million so far and our guess is the studio will wait until its nominated up the wazoo from the Globes and the Academy and slowly start upping the theater count again; a second shot at a slowly-building platform release as it were.

Upcoming for the weekend we have a three way dance involving Seth Rogen, Julia Roberts and Jennifer Lawrence with the releases of The Night Before, The Secret In Their Eyes and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2.

At $245 million in costs, it had quite the hurdle to overcome.