Best opening ever for a Bond film in North America

[The Sweeney]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/con ... 5796f62f6d

'Quantum of Solace' sets franchise record
Best opening ever for a Bond film in North America
By Carl DiOrio

Nov 16, 2008, 01:13 PM ET

Related
'Solace' continues overseas streak
Critics seemed shaken by its nonstop mayhem, but moviegoers were stirred to support "Quantum of Solace" in franchise-record numbers during the weekend as the James Bond film bowed with an estimated $70.4 million in domestic grosses.

A 22nd installment in the lucrative 007 franchise, now the joint property of Sony and MGM, the Daniel Craig starrer opened two frames earlier in many foreign territories and totes a $252 million international cume. Sony is handling physical distribution of the film worldwide, but MGM was a 50-50 participant in its $200 million in production costs.

The previous-best domestic debut for a Bond film was the $47.1 million registered by 2002's "Die Another Day." The franchise's top domestic theatrical run has been charted by "Solace" predecessor "Casino Royale," which rung up $167.4 million in U.S. and Canadian coin after unspooling in November 2006.

"Solace," Craig's second outing as 007, had been set to bow Nov. 7 domestically. But studio executives decided to hold it back a week after Warner Bros. moved "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" from November to July, so the Sony-MGM film could debut closer to the lucrative Thanksgiving period.

The outsized domestic opening for "Solace" exceeded even the high end of prerelease projections and was aided by positive global buzz. Craig's industry star has received an immense boost in the process as moviegoers clearly have taken to him in the iconic Bond role.

"Audiences have embraced him, and domestic audiences were champing at the bit for the film," Sony distribution president Rory Bruer said. "It's certainly gratifying, to say the least."

The Marc Forster-helmed film played to audiences comprising 54% males, with 58% of patrons age 25 and older.

In reviews, many critics lamented "Solace's" dark tone and said its action profile compared more closely to rugged Robert Ludlum-inspired films like 2002's "The Bourne Identity" than to a typical Ian Fleming action-adventure.

It's worth noting, then, that "Solace" opened bigger than any installment in Universal's "Bourne" series, for which the best opening came with 2007's "The Bourne Ultimatum" at $69.3 million. "Ultimatum" ultimately fetched $227.5 million domestically and $442.8 million worldwide.

In addition, "Solace" opened bigger than any other non-summer movie this year.

Industrywide, the weekend's $154 million in collective boxoffice marked a 48% improvement on the same frame a year earlier, according to data service Nielsen EDI.

Seasonal boxoffice, at $1.52 billion, is up 9% over fall 2007.

Year to date, 2008 is 4% ahead of the same portion of last year, at $8.62 billion. That's a big-enough spurt to make it possible for '08 to outpace last year's 12-month admissions because this year's lead in grosses appears ample enough to account for ticket-price increases.

Elsewhere during the weekend, three wide releases marked sophomore sessions with varying degrees of success.

The family comedy "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa," from DreamWorks Animation and Paramount, notched a relatively modest 43% decline from its opening grosses to register $36.1 million in second place and pump its 10-day cume to $118 million.

Universal's R-rated comedy "Role Models" slipped only 39% to $11.7 million in third place, netting a $38.1 million cume.

And the R-rated laugher "Soul Men," from MGM and Dimension, tumbled 55% to $2.4 million in seventh place, netting a $9.4 million cume.

Looking ahead, two major wide releases square off Friday, six days before Thanksgiving.

Disney unspools its animated comedy "Bolt," including hundreds of playdates in 3-D auditoriums, and Summit Entertainment sends out the teens-and-tweens vampire film "Twilight." The former will seek to sway family moviegoers from "Madagascar 2," and the latter is doing notably well in online ticket presales.

[Kristatos]

Once again, unadjusted numbers are always "record-breaking", at least from Goldeneye onwards.

[katied]

Still, it's impressive.It bested the(inferior) Madagascar 2 by quite a lot

[Dr. No]

Actually I like Madagascar 2. Some of these kids movies I can't stand and this was alright. Almost identical to Madagascar, which is good and bad but it was entertaining and the kids didn't get board or scared, so it was a win-win for me. Gotta love those d**n penguins carjackers

[Kristatos]

In other news, there was another big drop for QOS in the UK - 44% in its third weekend.

[bjmdds]

It will be tough for TBM to break the $105 million CR did in the UK, which so far, has done $64 million after 3 weekends of release.

[Milton Krest]

It will be tough for TBM to break the $105 million CR did in the UK, which so far, has done $64 million after 3 weekends of release.

It deserves to bomb, its a terrible piece of filmmaking!! cinema has really taken a dive over the last decade and this movie is the nadir of it. The fact people support it make it worser. I can appreciate people have different tastes but surely they can see lousy, bland and tasteless crap!

[Dr. No]

I know Im going to sound out of touch and maybe I am. I think long term ticket sales are going to be hurt because of the weak and getting weaker by the day economy.
We holdoff to rent movies we aren't sure about and to buy movies they day they come out that we are fairly sure to like. Ok, thats buying for a family and singles will have more disposable income. But for us $14-15 for a movie night and we keep the movie is the sensible thing to do.
I think the eager crowds teh first few weeks are going to be it (for the big money), I don't see many more Dark Knight like dominations for weeks until the economy is stabilized.

Pretty soon ticket prices are going to make home video seem more and more appealing they already drop the once long wait for new movies in our homes so, maybe some day not tomorrow but 10-20 years from now we'll be buying the movies to watch in our homes the same day its released to the big screen.

[Mazer Rackham]

When comparing these type of numbers to previous films one thing to remember is theater count is misleading. Modern theaters often have multiple screens showing the same movie. DAD's theater count of 3,377 V Quark's 3,451 & CR's 3,443 is a different animal and did more with less.

Code: Select all

Roughly adjusted for the average ticket price 2008
DAD US opening $57,559,592.88

Brozza Worldwide roughly adjusted 2008
GE$574,896,000
TND $534,540,000
TWINE $545,868,000
DAD $556,488,000

[The Sweeney]

We can massage these figures all day to try and prove a point. The only point worth making is Craig's Bond second time round has not been a failure in its opening weekend, here or in the States - where many of you predicted it would.

This is due to how good CR was, coming off the back of that. Will this film have the legs to maintain it? I'm not sure. Worth of mouth could dampen this film somewhat....

[katied]

LOL I've been telling everyone I know to see QOS ,but to see it more than once in case you miss anything.