There’s not a love lost for Sony’s “Spectre” round The Playlist parts, most of us have agreed, it’s a very subpar, James Bond. But audiences don’t really seem to mind so much and that A- Cinemascore is helping. As expected, “Spectre” was number one at the U.S. box-office again only dropping -49.7% in its 2nd week. Anything under -50% for a blockbuster is huge (then again, the competition this weekend was negligible), but overseas is where Bond continues to kick even more impressive ass. After three weeks of global release (two for North America), “Spectre” sits at $543 million worldwide. The film made $48 million in China this weekend, and compare that with $59 million which is the entire gross of “Skyfall” in that nation. Suffice to say, maybe some predictions— like ours last week — that “Spectre” may underperform, might be sounding a little wacky at the moment.
That said, the $1.10 billion “Skyfall” earned in 2012 still may be hard to match. “Spectre” currently sits at $130 million domestically and comparatively, “Skyfall” was at $160 million in its second week of Stateside release. “Spectre” could maybe hit $200 million, but next week is the true test when “Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2” hits theaters and may eat up the bulk of its audiences. Prediction: thanks to Hunger Games, watch the “Spectre” third week drop to go higher than -55% or more. Additionally, and it’s not a 100% accurate comparison because not all countries open at the same time, but after two weeks of release, "Skyfall" was at $289 million internationally. In contrast, after two weeks of international release, "Spectre" is at $223 million, so any way you slice it, it’s tracking behind.
20th Century Fox’s “The Peanuts Movie” enjoyed a healthy -45.3% hold and the movie is already at $82 million domestically after two weeks. Ridley Scott’s “The Martian” has spent seven weeks within the box-office top 10 and still shows no signs of slowing down. The movie is closing in on $500 million worldwide, it’s highest grossing film ever, and domestically, it’s probably going to close around $240-something million. I wouldn’t have thought it after its debut, but given a weak field, don’t be surprised if “The Martian” earns itself a Best Picture nomination.
READ MORE: Review: ‘The Peanuts Movie’ Successfully Brings Charlie Brown To The Big Screen
Things were fairly rough for new releases this weekend, but most of those studios knew they would be no match for “Spectre.” CBS‘ "Love the Coopers" fared best with $8.4 million from 2,600 screens, but Warner Bros.‘ "The 33”— a film that scored a prestigious bow at the recent AFI Festival — could only muster $5.8 million from 2,400 screens. Released on 1,500 screens, Clarius Entertainment‘s "My All American" was a non-starter, opening outside of the top 10 to only $1.3 million. The surprise of the weekend was Fox International Productions’ Bollywood film “Prem Ratan Dhan Payo” which made an excellent $2.4 million off only 286 screens. That’s still a per screen average lower than 10k, but for a film no one saw coming that cracked the top 10, you can definitely chalk this one up as a big success.
Elsewhere, holds, holds, holds yet again. For three weeks running, “Goosebumps,” “Bridge of Spies,” “Hotel Transylvania 2” showed consistent and excellent grips on the box-office (not one film fell lower than -35% with ‘Spies’ ultra stick with a -26% drop). Though it’s on its way out of the top 10 and hasn’t earned much domestically, even “The Last Witch Hunter” posted a -42.3% hold.
The limited release field was probably a much more interesting story though not a very good one. Universal’s “By The Sea,” the third directorial effort by Angelina Jolie was fairly rejected by audiences grossing $95,440 from 10 screens for a not-very-good $9,544 per screen average. “The Last Woman Standing” earned a pretty terrible $4,412 PSA, but the critically acclaimed indie "James White" fared better with a $12,120 PSA. The specialty field story this weekend belonged to Open Road’s “Spotlight.” Which jumped +374.0% by adding 56 screens from 5 and grossed $1,398,405 for a super solid second week $22,925 PSA. The film landed in the #11 spot, so by next weekend if this uptick continues the critically-adored film (which is believe you men, outstanding) will crack the top 10. "Brooklyn" also had a successful second weekend limited release: $485,000 from 23 screens for a $21,087 PSA.
Elsewhere The Weinstein Company looks like it’s pulling out any hope for "Burnt" (it dropped a whopping -60.3%) and despite four weeks of limited release and being on 496 screens “Suffragette" is still not posting impressive limited release numbers. "Steve Jobs" fell 50.6% in week six and Universal is already reducing its theater count. But it has grossed $17.7 million so far and our guess is the studio will wait until its nominated up the wazoo from the Globes and the Academy and slowly start upping the theater count again; a second shot at a slowly-building platform release as it were. After five weeks of release, "Crimson Peak" has stalled out at $30.8 million which is going to be a costly flop for Legendary and Universal, nor will it help what feels like an already shaky relationship between the two studios.
1. Spectre — $35,400,000 ($130,700,181)
2. The Peanuts Movie — $24,200,000 ($82,489,856)
3. Love the Coopers — $8,400,000
4. The Martian — $6,725,000 ($207,407,616 $108)
5. The 33 — $5,845,000
6. Goosebumps — $4,650,000 -31.7% ($73,487,390)
7. Bridge of Spies — $4,289,000 ($61,695,554)
8. Prem Ratan Dhan Payo — $2,400,000 ($2,787,433)
9. Hotel Transylvania 2 — $2,350,000 ($165,244,692)
10. The Last Witch Hunter — $1,500,000 ($26,076,579)