It’s time for EPIC FRANCHISE WAR WEEKEND! It’s like a WWE Smackdown, but with movies. This weekend, Spectre and Peanuts face off. Adults Vs Kids. Bond Vs Snoopy. One film will win. It will probably be Spectre.
After the massive goodwill built into the Bond series by Skyfall, which opened to 88M and ended up with a domestic gross of 304M (!). Skyfall is far and away the biggest Bond film ever. In fact, only 7 Bond films have ever broken 100M domestically. Since Goldeneye, the domestic gross for each Bond film has actually grown. Even the awful The World Is Not Enough managed to outgross both Tomorrow Never Dies and Goldeneye, which was followed by the divisive Die Another Day outgrossing that. Then Daniel Craig came along, and he started outperforming with each effort as well. All signs point to Spectre being the biggest Bond film ever, even if Skyfall set the bar really high.
It will have really only one film to contend with: Peanuts. The 3D kids effort has built in franchise recognition, and has had a marketing blitz in the weeks leading up to release. Peanuts might lose the weekend, but it will have a really strong debut for a 2nd place finisher.
1) Spectre- 80M Weekend, 80M Total
2) Peanuts- 45M Weekend, 45M Total
3) The Martian- 7.5M Weekend, 195M Total
4) Goosebumps- 6M Weekend, 66M Total
5) Bridge Of Spies- 5.5M Weekend, 55M Total
6) Hotel Transylvania 2- 3.5M Weekend, 161M Total
7) Burnt- 3M Weekend, 10M Total
8) The Last Witch Hunter- 2.5M Weekend, 22M Total
9) Our Brand Is Crisis- 2M Weekend, 7M Total
10) I have no idea. Either Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, Crimson Peak, or The Intern. Somewhere around 1.7-1.8M. Paranormal Activity is going to lose screens, and it’s post Halloween. Crimson Peak, same. I think The Intern will end up in the Top 10. As a long shot, I’d say Steve Jobs, or perhaps one of the limited release movies getting really good per-screen averages like Room.