Cannes Film Festival 2013

Box Office: 'Skyfall' on track for $100 million opening?

007 pulls in $4.6 million from Midnights and Thursday IMAX


Can a James Bond movie gross $100 million over just three-days?  Never say never, but Sam Mendes' "Skyfall" could come awfully close.

The critically acclaimed 23rd 007 film opened in 436 IMAX theaters yesterday grossing $2.2 million. It then debuted at midnight nationwide taking in $2.4 million.  That means "Skyfall" already had $4.6 million before regular engagements started today.  Pre-release polling has been off the charts for the Eon Productions, MGM and Sony Pictures thriller for weeks and based on the intensity of today's matinees, some rival studios are projecting a $105-110 million weekend. Others are guessing something closer to $80-90 million, but either way it will absolutely be the biggest opening for a James Bond movie in the United States ever.

In the rest of the world "Skyfall" is already a smash finding $323 million and $85 million in the U.K. alone (the later figure more than "The Avengers" total British cume).  The last two Bond films, "Casino Royale" and "Quantum of Solace," made $167.4 and $168.3 million in the U.S. respectively.  

There are no other wide openings this weekend. "Lincoln" opens in 11 theaters.  "A Royal Affair" debuts in just Los Angeles and New York.

Look for complete box office estimates all weekend long on HitFix.

Greg-ellwood-sm
Gregory Ellwood
Editor-in-Chief, Co-Founder
With over a decade of experience in the movie industry, Ellwood survived working for two major studios and has written for Variety, MSN and the LA Times. A co-founder of HitFix, Ellwood spends his time relaxing hitting 3’s on the basketball court and following his beloved Clippers.

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    Christian

    $100 million? Are you serious? I'm pretty sure Inception had a $4 million midnight gross, and ended the weekend with about $60 million something. I can see this getting maybe $70 million. Bond is a lot bigger over seas.

    November 9, 2012 at 8:21PM EST Reply to Comment
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      Frank I can easily see this doing 90 mill. Saw it at the midnight showing and it was pretty phenomenal. Plus the word of mouth is nothing but good for it.

      November 9, 2012 at 8:24PM EST
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      TGC I predicted $80 million to friends and was laughed at. It'll be interesting to see how it shakes out come Sunday. I know I'm super excited for it moreso than any other previous Bond film since Goldeneye and Casino Royale.

      November 9, 2012 at 10:44PM EST
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      Dave Inception had a $3M midnight gross according to boxofficemojo, and also opened in the summer when midnights tend to be a little stronger. That said, 100M for the weekend sounds a little bit high.

      November 9, 2012 at 11:14PM EST
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    Dave Brown

    Curious, why do we only ever hear about IMAX grosses as opposed to the other PLF formats like Cinemark XD, Regal RPX, NIRD, et cetera? I work for Cinemark and have an XD theater that routinely beats the nearby IMAX screen and I'm genuinely curious and somewhat perplexed why I never see anything on HitFix (or anywhere else) about the other large format screen types. Our XD, and I suspect our rival PLF formats also released Skyfall a day early but again all I've seen in the press is "Skyfall in IMAX a day early." I find it odd.

    November 10, 2012 at 3:41AM EST Reply to Comment
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    Sam

    Comparing the total for Skyfall in the UK to that of The Avengers implies (on some level at least) that The Avengers was the highest grossing movie of the year up until Skyfall, when it's not the case: The Dark Knight Rises was the highest grossing movie of the year in the UK (now falling into second). Avengers is now third.

    November 10, 2012 at 4:16AM EST Reply to Comment

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