Box Office: SPECTRE and Peanuts Win Again Over Weak New Offerings

James Bond’s SPECTRE and The Peanuts Movie topped the box office for a second weekend in a row

It wasn’t too big a surprise this weekend that none of the new movies were able to dethrone last week’s two blockbusters at the box office, as the latest in MGM Studios and Sony Pictures‘ James Bond franchise, SPECTRE, and 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios‘ animated The Peanuts Movie remained in the top two spots with none of the new movies grossing more than $10 million. 

After the second-biggest opening for a Bond movie, SPECTRE, starring Daniel Craig and Christoph Waltz, dropped 50% for an estimated $35.4 million in its second weekend, also the second best for the franchise as it has grossed $130.8 million domestically after ten days. SPECTRE also opened in the lucrative Chinese market this weekend with $48.2 million, which is the biggest opening for a 2D US film in China. It has already grossed a good percentage of Skyfall‘s total China gross of $59 million. It was helped by $4.6 million earned on 246 IMAX screens in China.

SPECTRE grossed $152.6 million in its 3rd weekend overseas including China, one of 14 new markets also including France (which isn’t reporting out of respect to the victims of Friday’s terrorist attack). Australia opened with $8.7 million and Korea was just behind it with $8.2 million. It has already grossed $121 million in the UK after setting a new opening record in the region. It has grossed $413 million internationally after three weeks, or $543 million including North America.

The Peanuts Movie remained in second place with $24.2 million, down 45% from its opening weekend (which feels like a lot considering the lack of new competition), and it’s grossed $82.5 million so far.

Distributed with Lionsgate, CBS Films’ ensemble holiday comedy Love the Coopers, starring Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Ed Helms, Diane Keaton, Jake Lacy, Anthony Mackie, Amanda Seyfried, June Squibb, Marisa Tomei and Olivia Wilde, opened in 3,073 theaters on Friday and it managed to earn an estimated $8.4 million over the weekend, or $3,227 per theater. Its “B-” CinemaScore from its predominantly older female audience is not a good sign that audiences will recommend it to their friends for holiday viewing.

Ridley Scott’s The Martian, starring Matt Damon, crossed the $200 million mark this past week, and over the weekend it added another $6.7 million (down 26%) to take fourth place with $207.4 million grossed domestically so far.

Warner Bros.’ Chilean miner drama The 33, starring Antonio Banderas, Lou Diamond Phillips, Rodrigo Santoro, Juliette Binoche and Gabriel Byrne, opened in fifth place with an estimated $5.9 million in 2,452 theaters, another weak per-theater average of $2,386 per site. It received a decent “A-” CinemaScore.

Sixth place was a tight race between Sony Pictures‘ adaptation of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps, starring Jack Black, and Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks’ spy thriller Bridge of Spies (DreamWorks), but it seems like Goosebumps will come out slightly ahead with $4.6 million and $73.5 million grossed to date.

The Bollywood romantic musical Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (FIP), starring superstar Salman Khan, opened on Thursday in 284 theaters in select cities and brought in $387,433 on Thursday, before adding another $2.4 million on the weekend ($8,392 per theater), achieving the fourth-biggest opening for a Bollywood movie in North America, and allowing it to place in the Top 10 at #8.

Ninth place went to Sony Pictures Animation’s animated hit Hotel Transylvania 2 with $2.4 million and $165 million earned so far, making it Sony’s highest-grossing movie of 2015 for now, but soon to be passed by SPECTRE.

The football drama My All American (Clarius Entertainment), written and directed by Angelo Pizzo (Hoosiers) and starring Aaron Eckhart, bombed with $1.4 million in 1,565 theaters, or $889 per location. Although it barely got into the Top 10, it ended up with the best CinemaScore of the three new movies, scoring an “A,” which is a good sign it can generate some business through word-of-mouth.

Opening in limited release in just ten theaters, Angelina Jolie Pitt’s third film as a director, the period drama By the Sea (Universal), co-starring husband Brad Pitt, grossed an estimated $95,440, or $9,544 per theater. No word on whether Universal has any expansion plans for it. It grossed $325,000 overseas this weekend as well.

The ensemble drama Spotlight (Open Road), starring Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber and Stanley Tucci, expanded into 60 theaters in advance of its nationwide expansion on November 20 and it added another $1.4 million over the weekend, bringing its total to $1.8 million so far.

Focus Features’ Suffragette, starring Carey Mulligan, Meryl Streep and Helena Bonham Carter, expanded into 496 theaters on Friday to add another million to its $2.5 million current gross.