with a nearly $88 million domestic debut, per weekend box-office
estimates, and vaulted toward the half-billion-dollar mark worldwide.
Only Steven Spielberg's Lincoln managed to secure any bragging rights
over 007, with the Oscar candidate coming up big in limited release.
Two weeks after bowing overseas, Skyfall now stands at $428.6 million
overall. Its worldwide from the last three days alone was $177
million.
In these parts, the film destroyed the series' opening-weekend mark of
$68 million held by 2008's Quantum of Solace. It looked especially big
in IMAX, where it set a new mark for a non-summer opener, the company
said.
A winner with critics, Daniel Craig's third Bond outing, after Quantum
and 2006's Casino Royale, was graded an A in audience polling. Since
it began showing domestically Thursday in what were billed as sneak
previews, Skyfall has taken in $90 million.
Lincoln, meanwhile, looked about as big as it could on 11 screens,
grossing $900,000. Its per-screen average of $81,818 was the weekend's
best, blowing away even Skyfall's mammoth $25,050.
The film, featuring Daniel Day-Lewis' odds-on-favorite Best Actor
performance, goes wide next weekend. Elsewhere, Wreck-It Ralph and
Denzel Washington's Flight both held well in their second weekends,
while Ben Affleck's Argo continued to look strong in its fifth
weekend.
A week after dropping out of the Top 10, the comedy Pitch Perfect was
back in, climbing over the likes of Paranormal Activity 4 and
Sinister.
Here's the rundown of the weekend's top movies, per Friday-Sunday
domestic estimates as reported by the studios and Exhibitor Relations:
- Skyfall, $87.8 million - Wreck-It Ralph, $33.1 million - Flight,
$15.1 million - Argo, $6.7 million - Taken 2, $4 million - Here Comes
the Boom, $2.6 million - Cloud Atlas, $2.53 million - Pitch Perfect,
$2.5 million - The Man With the Iron Fists, $2.49 million - Hotel
Transylvania, $2.4 million