Box Office: ‘Spectre,’ ‘Peanuts,’ Return To Top Spots

The top of this week’s box office mirrors last week as the new James Bond film, Spectre, and the computer animated Peanuts Movie retained their respective numbers one and two spots in theaters this week, reports the L.A. Times‘ Tre’vell Anderson.

Spectre, the 24th installment of the James Bond franchise, opened to a mammoth $73 million weekend marking it as the second-highest opening for a James Bond movie ever behind 2012’s Skyfall, and the feature film adaptation of the beloved Peanuts comic strip added a $45 million opening last weekend to help the box office rebound from the worst box office weekend of the year and the worst grossing Halloween weekend at the theaters in 16 years.

This week, Spectre added just shy of $35 million to its overall take, pushing its worldwide box office total past the $550 million mark. Peanuts added $24 million bringing its two week total to just under $83 million, according to Brad Brevit at Box Office Mojo.

Spectre, which reunited Daniel Craig as James Bond with Skyfall director Sam Mendes, as Jonathan Olley of Entertainment Weekly points out, has already crushed records internationally opening as the largest Bond movie ever in the U.K. and has already amassed $296.1 million at the global box office in only 10 days. Craig, who stars as super spy James Bond for the fourth time, had spoken in interviews about moving on from the 007 character, but with Spectre sure to hang around the box office top five for weeks to come, may have second thoughts as he sees his popularity and his bank account soar.

The Peanuts Movie benefits from a solid and recognizable brand which may help keep some wind in its sails in the coming weeks, however, despite the relative staying power of such family-friendly animated films, the coming weeks, particularly Thanksgiving weekend, sees some powerhouse competitors looking to knock it out of the top 10, including the latest in the wildly popular Hunger Games franchise.

The holiday romantic comedy Love The Coopers debuted in the number three spot earning $8.4 million. The comedy, starring Diane Keaton, John Goodman, and Ed Helms centers around the Cooper family, who, in traditional light holiday comedy fare tradition, are made up of an eclectic mix of personalities, all of whom are in conflict with one another, and whom eventually come to rediscover the meaning of Christmas. It’s a little surprising that this film was released so far ahead of the holidays, especially with the expected box office dominance of Spectre and Peanuts, and only speaks to the expectations for the new Hunger Games film.

Coming in at number four is the film that refuses to go away, The Martian. The Matt Damon interplanetary drama added $6.7 million to its whopping overall $270 million in domestic box office earnings. The Martian, already Ridley Scott’s highest-grossing film of all time, has yet to hit the Chinese and Japanese box offices, where it will add substantially to its staggering $458.5 million earnings. It is not out of the realm of possibility that The Martian, when all is said and done, could be looking at over $1 billion in overall box office earnings.

Rounding out the top five is the Chilean mine collapse thriller The 33, which earned $5.8 million in its debut weekend.

Hotel Transylvania 2, which proved to me a monumental hit for Sony, remained in the top 10 at number nine, adding $2.4 million to its overall $165 million overall box office haul. In its eighth week at the box office, Hotel Transylvania 2 has enjoyed a two-month stay in the top 10 during a time which has proven to be a lull at the box office. With The Hunger Games – Mockingjay Part 2 due out next week, it is expected that Hotel Transylvania 2 may slip out of the top 10.

[Photo Image via Sony Pictures]