"Spectre" and "The Peanuts Movie" Resuscitate the 2015 Box Office

[JamesG]

Spectre and Peanuts Resuscitate the 2015 Box Office
by Brad Brevet
November 8, 2015


Coming off the worst October since 2007, the industry was looking to this weekend to turn the tide and that it did.

With the release of Spectre and The Peanuts Movie, the weekend showed a 148% increase over last weekend and a 6% improvement over the same weekend last year with the top twelve making over $155 million. Of that total, 007, Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the gang accounted for 76% as November 2015 is off to a good start.







Taking the number one slot is Spectre, the 24th James Bond movie and already the eighth highest grossing Bond film domestically as it brought in an estimated $73 million from 3,929 theaters.

It's the second highest opening for a Bond film, $15.3 million behind the overwhelming performance of 2012's Skyfall. Internationally the film brought in $117.8 million from 77 total markets, bringing its worldwide cume to an estimated $296.1 million after ten days.







Moving to second place, and the week's other new wide release, The Peanuts Movie brought in an estimated $45 million from 3,897 theaters. The CG-animated feature earned mostly positive reviews and opening day audiences gave it an "A" CinemaScore.

Budgeted at a reported $99 million, a domestic run at or around $170 million seems possible, but it's going to need some strong weekend holds.



When it comes to this weekend's Peanuts audience, 70% were families, which could bode well for both Peanuts and Spectre as it's very possible the two films share a portion of their audience, possibly bolstering week-to-week returns.

Internationally, Peanuts scored an estimated $4.5 million from eleven territories, including China where it brought in only $2.7 million.







In third place is The Martian, which dropped a mere 20.6% for an estimated $9.3 million in the face of direct competition from Spectre. This puts the sci-fi feature at $197 million domestically as it will be crossing the $200 million mark before next weekend and is now director Ridley Scott's highest grossing domestic release of all-time.

Internationally, The Martian added another $9.3 million bringing its worldwide cume to $458.5 million, making it Scott's highest grossing worldwide release as well, topping Gladiator by $1.1 million.

The Martian lands in China later this month and Japan in February.







Also holding strong are Goosebumps and Bridge of Spies, both of which are in their fourth weekends and each dropping less than 30% for $6.9 million and $6 million respectively.

Kudos also belongs to Nancy Meyers' The Intern, which has been in the top ten six out of its seven weeks in release. It's worldwide cume is now up to $180 million as it has now grossed more than $108 million internationally.







Dropping all the way to 15th is Universal's Steve Jobs. The film was unable to find any traction after its limited release and this weekend lost 2,072 theaters.

Its weekend total from 421 theaters was a mere $823,000. On the plus side, its cume is now up to $16.6 million, which does put it ahead of 2013's Jobs starring Ashton Kutcher before adjusting for inflation.







The weekend's per theater champ was Open Road's Spotlight, which brought in an estimated $302,276 from five theaters for a $60,455 per theater average.

Definitely solid numbers and far better than Sony Classics' Truth, which managed a mere $11k when it opened in six theaters in mid-October.







Also opening in limited theaters this weekend was Brooklyn from Fox Searchlight.

After opening in five theaters on Wednesday, the highly acclaimed Saoirse Ronan starrer entered the weekend with $56,389 and scored an estimated $181,000 for a $36,200 per theater average.



Additional limited releases include Trumbo, which opened in five theaters and brought in an estimated $77,229 ($15,446 PTA) and Miss You Already, which finished with an estimated $572,160 from 384 theaters ($1,490 PTA).

Continuing its limited roll-out, Focus' Suffragette has been unable to attract much of an audience, which leaves its Oscar hopes in the lurch. Generating an estimated $779,000 from 22 theaters, the film managed a $3,509 per theater average as it hopes to find more luck next weekend, expanding into roughly 450 theaters.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4120&p=.htm









November 6-8, 2015 Weekend Studio Estimates:


1. Spectre $73,000,000
2. The Peanuts Movie $45,000,000
3. The Martian $9,300,000 / $197,067,346
4. Goosebumps $6,965,000 / $66,440,954
5. Bridge of Spies $6,086,000 / $54,971,952
6. Hotel Transylvania 2 $3,550,000 / $161,293,404
7. Burnt $3,003,000 / $10,211,287
8. The Last Witch Hunter $2,650,000 / $23,571,701
9. The Intern $1,810,000 / $71,407,251
10. Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension $1,650,000 / $16,281,378