Bond is Back: 'Quantum of Solace' May Hit $70+ Million

Daniel Craig and Olga Kurylenko in Quantum Of Solace
Photo: Sony Pictures

The early Friday estimates are in over at Fantasy Moguls and it looks like Quantum Of Solace (my review) is even a bigger hit than industry prognosticators guessed it would be. Tracking on the film had it looking like $60 million for the three-day weekend, but after $27 million on Friday, Steve Mason at Fantasy Moguls is saying the film could reach as high as $71.5 million for the weekend. Will there be drop off over the weekend, or will the figure carryover? Considering the film has little-to-no competition as it was the sole opener this week and it has a running time of only 106 minutes I don't see why that $70+ million number would be an outlandish assumption.

The next number to gauge, however, is how much will Quantum bring in overall? As it sits right now, Casino Royale is the highest grossing James Bond film overall at $167 million. Royale opened with $40 million and never had a weekend #1 as it consistently lost to the box-office juggernaut that was Happy Feet back in 2006. Well, Quantum proved Bond doesn't get beaten by animated animals twice in a row as Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa will come in second in its second week with an estimated $8.7 million on Friday and an expected $35.6 million for the weekend, but let's not get off topic for too long.

Mason believes Quantum will be the first Bond title to crack the $200 million barrier and with the film already tearing up the foreign box-office to the tune of $160 million as of November 9, the $426 million earned by Casino Royale in the foreign market looks like it will be squashed. How high will Quantum go? I guess that depends on audience reaction, as always. For the most part critics seemed to enjoy the film to the tune of a 66% rating at Rotten Tomatoes and a less than stellar 58% at MetaCritic, but considering the film is all action and little dialogue, I would assume that would fit right in with what satisfies the general audience's palette. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Coming in at #3 is Universal's Role Models, performing rather well in its second weekend with $3.65 million on Friday and an estimated turn at the $10.77 million mark for the weekend followed up by Clint Eastwood's Changeling, which was made on a production budget of $55 million and with this being its fourth weekend in theaters I am not sure if the expected Sunday cume at $28.8 million will meet Universal's expectations for the flick or be considered a bust. I wasn't too keen on the flick, but it wasn't all bad. Then again, I wouldn't necessarily recommend everyone rush out to see it either, and it doesn't look like many are in any kind of hurry.

Rounding out the top five for Friday is Zack and Miri Make a Porno with an estimated $1.28 million, but Mason expects it to drop to sixth for the weekend, just barely getting edged out by Disney's High School Musical 3 as the two look to both finish somewhere around $4 million. That would mean Smith's Zack and Miri would reach $27.2 million total since its October 31 release, still approximately $3 million shy of Dogma's $30.6 million, which marks Smith's highest grossing film to date. I would assume it has the power to just edge out Dogma, but it's unfortunate for the flick it doesn't look like it will be the coming out party Smith hoped it would be.

Unfortunately there are no numbers on Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, which hit theaters on Wednesday and has since grossed $67,697 in only 10 theaters. The film is getting a very slow roll out by Fox Searchlight and will be in the majority of cities by Friday, December 26th. To find out when it will be playing near you click here.

You can check out the complete early Friday estimates below and stay tuned as Laremy will have the weekend wrap-up for you on Sunday.

1. Quantum of Solace (Sony) - $27 million
2. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (Dreamworks/Paramount) - $8.7 million
3. Role Models (Universal) - $3.65 million
4. Changeling (Universal) - $1.6 million
5. Zack and Miri Make a Porno (Weinstein) - $1.28 million
6. High School Musical 3: Senior Year (Disney) - $1.23 million
7. Soul Men (MGM) - $863,000
8. Saw V (Lionsgate) - $750,000
9. The Secret Life of Bees (Fox Searchlight) - $675,000
10. Eagle Eye (Dreamworks/Paramount) - $580,000