Weekend box office: Skyfall has the biggest opening for a James Bond film
Brad Sturdivant
November 11th, 2012
Although people will continue to argue who did the best job playing James Bond, the debate as to which James Bond film is the most successful has been settled. It looks like SKYFALL will flirt with $90 million at the weekend box office, (if you include Thursday’s total) making it the biggest James Bond film of all time, easily surpassing the $67 million that QUANTUM OF SOLACE brought in. That kind of opening is always impressive, but what’s more impressive about SKYFALL is just how loved it has bee by critics. To date, it has been one of the best reviewed films of the year, meaning that good word of mouth will carry this film for the coming weeks. One also has to wonder if the huge opening and immense love from critics will translate to Oscar consideration. I know it sounds crazy that a Bond film could be nominated, but don’t forget SKYFALL director Sam Mendes won an Oscar for AMERICAN BEAUTY.
Other studios were smart not to compete with SKYFALL, but one film that did find some unusual success is Steven Spielberg’s LINCOLN, which opened up on a measly 11 screens. But on those 11 screens, it pulled in close to $1 million, generating a ton of buzz for Daniel Day Lewis’s performance. It will be interesting to see how that plays out next weekend, where SKYFALL will be competing with LINCOLN and the last installment of the Twilight franchise, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN PART 2. History and common sense tell me that Twilight will take the top spot, but it’s hard to ignore the success of SKYFALL and LINCOLN, which means this Twilight could finish lower than some of its predecessors. Note: the numbers below will be updated as they become final.
1. Skyfall $87.8m
2. Wreck-It Ralph $33m
3. Flight $14.8m
4. Argo $6.7m
5. Taken 2 $4m
6. The Man With The Iron Fists $3m
7. Cloud Atlas $2.5m
8. Pitch Perfect $2.5m
9. Here Comes the Boom $2.2m
10. Paranormal Activity 4 $2m
(ERC)
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