Box Office Returns for November 9-11

It’s no surprise what movie toped the box office this week!

The twenty-third Bond film, Skyfall, grossed over 88 million dollars in its first weekend at the box office. This is the highest opening weekend for the fifty-year-old film franchise. Even when adjusted for inflation, Skyfall garnered nearly 16 million dollars more than Quantum of Solace. This puts Daniel Craig’s latest film on track for being one of the most successful Bond films of all time. It also asserts that the franchise will continue to be a strong box office contender with the future releases.

A surprisingly strong opening was Steven Spielberg’s newest film, Lincoln. It hit fifteen on this week’s list with $944,308. While this may not sound like a good opening at all, Lincoln was in limited release in only 11 theaters! The film averaged $85,846 in each theater (for a comparison note: Skyfall averaged just over $25,000 a theater). I look forward to seeing what it will to in its full release this upcoming weekend. Period pieces generally struggle in theaters, but with a strong cast including: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tommy Lee Jones this film will do well.

Hanging tight in the top five are Wreck-It Ralph, Flight, Argo, and Taken 5. These films are steadily increasing their total domestic gross. The movies in the top five have all been well reviewed – a key in maintaining a top spot on the list.

The studios are doing much better this year in terms of attendance. In comparison with last year’s top box office, the newly released movie, Immortals, only grossed about 32 million dollars. This is great news for the struggling studios that have been battling low attendance for a few years now.

Next week’s releases are The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 and the limited release of Keira Knightley and Jude Law’s newest drama, Anna Karenina. Expect Breaking Dawn to shatter records, as teenage girls will line up all over the country to catch their last glimpse of Edward Cullen and Jacob Black.

Statistics compiled using boxofficemojo.com.