After several painful weekends burdened by one high-profile flop after another, Hollywood was bailed out by two of its most venerable franchises.
SPECTRE (MGM/Columbia/Sony) will be, based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, the 2d biggest opener of the Bond series. Its $28.1M first day (which includes $5.25M from Thursday night) puts it behind only the $33M for 2012’s Skyfall (which included $2.2M for IMAX-only Thursday runs). It should have a $75M weekend, compared to $90.6M for Skyfall. That would be the 7th biggest opening of the year, with no competition besides the different-skewing Hunger Games for a solid month. However, the 15% reduction from Skyfall, if it extends worldwide, would be bad news for Sony, which according to one of the studio’s hacked documents would only see a $37M profit even if Spectre makes the full $1.1B that Skyfall did, due to the new movie’s gargantuan cost (somewhere around $450M with worldwide marketing included) and the sweetheart deal Sony gave MGM in order to win the James Bond rights, which include kicking in 50% of the production budget and most of the marketing costs in exchange for 25% of the revenue.
THE PEANUTS MOVIE (20th) had no trouble transitioning the comic strip to 3D digital animation for a new audience. It earned around $12.5M on Friday, and should be at $45M+ by Sunday, similar to the $48.4M opening for Hotel Transylvania 2. It faces no competition until The Good Dinosaur arrives for Thanksgiving, and there should be plenty of profit ahead on a $250M production/marketing budget, and sequels to come.
Holdovers are still led by THE MARTIAN (TSG/20th), down a tiny 23% from last Friday to $2.7M, and headed for a weekend that could approach $10M. It will top $200M in the US by next weekend, and is also about to become the most successful film in Ridley Scott’s 4-decade long career. BRIDGE OF SPIES (DreamWorks/20th/Disney) is also holding well, down 28% from last Friday to $1.8M and on track for a $6M weekend that will put it at $55M in the US.
GOOSEBUMPS (Columbia/Sony) and HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2 (Columbia Sony) were both affected by the arrival of Peanuts, but not horribly so. Goosebumps dropped 44% from last Friday to $1.7M, and Transylvania was down 53% to $900K, with respective weekends of $6.5M and $3.5M ahead.
Of last week’s bombs, BURNT (Weinstein), down 50% to $900K for a $3M weekend, is in better shape than OUR BRAND IS CRISIS (Participant/Warners), down 59% to $450K for a $1.5M weekend.
A trio of awards hopefuls hit limited release this weekend, and SPOTLIGHT (Open Road), which some already consider an Oscar favorite, is faring best, aiming for a $50K+ per-theatre average for the weekend in 5 NY/LA theatres. BROOKLYN (Fox Searchlight) is also solid, on track for $35K weekend average at 5 after a Wednesday opening. TRUMBO (Bleecker Street) is lagging, on its way to a $15K average at 5. In addition, MISS YOU ALREADY (Lionsgate/Roadside) had a not-quite-wide opening at 384 theatres, and won’t be much higher than a $1000 average for the weekend.
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