It’s Bond, James Bond, Charlie Brown
After a few brutal weekends at the Box office, it took a couple of time-tested franchises to breathe some life into the theatres.
Spectre was the big winner here, earning $73 million becoming the second-biggest Bond opening of all time. It’s the 24th film in a series that has run for 53 years. Amazing.
Domestically, Spectre failed to live up to the record-breaking standard set by Skyfall, which debuted to $88.4 million in 2012 and went on to become the first film in the franchise to earn over $1 billion worldwide. With some tough competition on the horizon, Spectre will most likely fall short of Skyfall’s domestic total of $304.3 million, but it should hit around $200 million
Despite having numerous leading men portraying 007, the franchise continues to chug along and remain successful. Sure Bond has had its share of hits and misses, but lets look at the chart below.
|
1 |
Thunderball | UA | $623,832,000 | $63,595,658 | 12/21/65 |
| 2 | Goldfinger | UA | $552,942,000 | $51,081,062 | 12/22/64 |
| 3 | Skyfall | Sony | $315,602,300 | $304,360,277 | 11/9/12 |
| 4 | You Only Live Twice | UA | $299,439,300 | $43,084,787 | 6/13/67 |
| 5 | Moonraker | MGM | $233,613,400 | $70,308,099 | 6/29/79 |
| 6 | Die Another Day | MGM | $230,050,800 | $160,942,139 | 11/22/02 |
| 7 | Tomorrow Never Dies | MGM | $224,439,200 | $125,304,276 | 12/19/97 |
| 8 | From Russia, with Love | UA | $222,371,000 | $24,796,765 | 4/8/64 |
| 9 | Diamonds Are Forever | UA | $221,487,900 | $43,819,547 | 12/17/71 |
| 10 | Casino Royale | Sony | $212,075,200 | $167,445,960 | 11/17/06 |
| 11 | The World Is Not Enough | MGM | $207,280,700 | $126,943,684 | 11/19/99 |
| 12 | GoldenEye | MGM | $203,528,900 | $106,429,941 | 11/17/95 |
| 13 | Quantum of Solace | Sony | $195,570,000 | $168,368,427 | 11/14/08 |
| 14 | Octopussy | MGM | $179,756,400 | $67,893,619 | 6/10/83 |
| 15 | The Spy Who Loved Me | UA | $175,172,400 | $46,838,673 | 7/13/77 |
| 16 | Live and Let Die | UA | $166,695,600 | $35,377,836 | 6/27/73 |
| 17 | For Your Eyes Only | MGM | $164,438,400 | $54,812,802 | 6/26/81 |
| 18 | Dr. No | UA | $157,646,000 | $16,067,035 | 5/8/63 |
| 19 | Never Say Never Again | WB | $146,765,000 | $55,432,841 | 10/7/83 |
| 20 | On Her Majesty’s Secret Service | UA | $133,760,000 | $22,774,493 | 12/18/69 |
| 21 | A View to a Kill | MGM | $118,235,300 | $50,327,960 | 5/24/85 |
| 22 | The Living Daylights | UA | $109,179,100 | $51,185,897 | 7/31/87 |
| 23 | The Man with the Golden Gun | UA | $93,532,900 | $20,972,000 | 12/18/74 |
| 24 | License to Kill | UA | $72,826,900 | $34,667,015 | 7/14/89 |
| 25 | Spectre | Sony | $68,195,400 | $70,403,148 | 11/6/15 |
For the most part each era performs along the same lines in accordance to its stars. Sure there are outliers (Skyfall) but there are three things you can bank on: Death, Taxes, and the Bond 
series.
The Peanuts franchise may have a spot historically in our pop culture, but when was the last time they were relevant? Fox took a risk here reintroducing the gang to a new generation but Neil felt the trailer had enough “whimsy” to hit with the family. Charlie an company “hit” to the tune of $45 million, surpassing the $40 million projections by fox.
About 70 percent of Peanuts viewers were families, and with an “A” rating from cinema score, Peanut’s should have a solid second week coming.
This weekend’s No. 3 film was The Martian, which added $9.3 million in its sixth weekend. Dropping a mere 21% in its fourth weekend has grossed an estimated $197.1 million in the United States and Canada.
Goosebumps and Bridge Of Spies rounded out the top five earning $7 million and $6.1 in their fourth weekend respectively.
Three awards contenders also made their debuts in limited release to mixed results. Director Tom McCarthy’s film about the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, was the strongest of the pack earning an impressive $60,455 per theater average grossing over $300k.
1. Spectre, $73 million
2. The Peanuts Movie, $45 million
3. The Martian, $9.3 million
4. Goosebumps, $7 million
5. Bridge of Spies, $6.1 million
6. Hotel Transylvania 2, $3.6 million
7. Burnt, $3 million
8. The Last Witch Hunter, $2.7 million
9. The Intern, $1.8 million
10. Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, $1.7 million
