The spy blockbuster Spectre held onto the number one spot with ease in its sophomore frame falling a reasonable 50% to an estimated $35.4M pushing the domestic cume to a solid $130.7M. The Sony smash suffered a smaller decline than Skyfall‘s 54% and Quantum of Solace‘s 60%, partly due to significantly less competition from new releases. Cumulative weekend grosses for new competitors was $98M for Quantum, $165M for Skyfall, but a mere $18M for Spectre. The last two James Bond flicks had new Twilight movies opening on their second weekends while this weekend saw no new releases reach double digit millions.
The more friendly marketplace will allow the latest 007 pic to collect more during the week ahead before Thursday night’s launch of the franchise-ending tentpole The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 which is expected to bow to $120M or more. A domestic final in the area of $220M may result for Spectre which has been generating decent but not stellar buzz from ticket buyers.
The new Bond enjoyed a giant opening in China on Friday locking down an estimated $48.1M in its first weekend in the lucrative market including $4.6M from 246 IMAX screens. That stands as the largest opening weekend ever there for a 2D-only Hollywood film. Skyfall grossed $59M in China across its entire run and with all the growth there over the past three years, Spectre is headed for a sharply higher haul. The overall international weekend hauled in an estimated $152.6M from 91 markets pushing the offshore total to $413.1M (including $121M from the U.K.) and the global gross to $543.8M on its way to a possible billion.
Staying in second place for a second weekend was the animated family comedy The Peanuts Movie with an estimated $24.2M falling by 45%. That’s a bigger drop than the 38% of last year’s Big Hero 6 and the 33% of 2012’s Wreck-it Ralph. Both of those launched on the first weekend of November as well, but were not based on such a broadly known property like Charlie Brown. Peanuts has banked $82.5M to date and may end up in the $150-160M range for Fox.
The Christmas comedy Love the Coopers was panned by critics, but moviegoers showed up in decent numbers giving the film an opening weekend of $8.4M from 2,603 theaters for a mild $3,227 average. Released by CBS and Lionsgate, the PG-13 pic featured an ensemble cast that included Olivia Wilde, Amanda Seyfried, Marisa Tomei, Diane Keaton, John Goodman, and Ed Helms so the value pack of familiar names amounted to something. The audience was 70% female and 82% over 25. Coopers hopes to play through the Thanksgiving holiday attracting a mature audience that comes out over time, though shaky word-of-mouth will make that challenging.
Spending its seventh weekend in the top five, Fox’s The Martian dipped only 26% to an estimated $6.7M and lifted its sum to an amazing $207.4M. It is only the second October film in history to reach $200M+ following Gravity. The latest flop for Warner Bros. came in the form of a mining disaster drama as The 33 debuted to an estimated $5.8M from 2,452 sites for a miserable $2,384 average. Starring Antonio Banderas, the PG-13 film was not liked by film critics.
Sony’s Goosebumps fared well in its fifth weekend slipping 32% to an estimated $4.7M pushing the cume to $73.5M. Bridge of Spies has banked $61.7M over the same number of weeks and grossed an estimated $4.3M this weekend dipping 27% for Disney. 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. It was the fourth largest Bollywood opening ever in North America and the cume since the Thursday launch is $2.8M.
The animated hit Hotel Transylvania 2 became the highest grossing film of Adam Sandler’s career after this weekend’s estimated $2.4M (off 35%) raised the total to $165.2M surpassing the $163.5M of Big Daddy which had been the funnyman’s top film since 1999. Vin Diesel rounded out the top ten with The Last Witch Hunter which took in an estimated $1.5M, down 42%, for a $26.1M.
The PG-rated football drama My All American failed to connect with moviegoers debuting outside the top ten with an estimated $1.4M from 1,565 locations for a puny $889 average for Clarius. 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. The R-rated relationship drama bowed in ten theaters and grossed an estimated $95,000 for a weak $9,500 average. Reviews were mostly negative for the vanity project and the exclusive play plus big starpower did not add up to packed houses.
Among expanding sophomore holdovers in specialty release, Spotlight fared well with an estimated $1.4M from 60 locations for a solid $23,300 average for Open Road. Fox Searchlight’s Brooklyn collected an estimated $485,000 from 23 sites for a similar $21,087 average. Totals are $1.8M and $833,000 respectively.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $95.8M which was down 24% from last year when Dumb and Dumber To opened at number one with $36.1M; and down 17% from 2013 when Thor: The Dark World debuted in the top spot with $36.6M.
