Box Office: Skyfall the Biggest Bond of All-Time; Lincoln Looks Presidential

Daniel Craig's latest James Bond adventure sets franchise record with $87.8 million opening-weekend domestic debut; Daniel Day-Lewis Oscar vehicle rolls on 11 screens

By Joal Ryan Nov 11, 2012 6:49 PMTags
Daniel Craig, Skyfall, Daniel Day-Lewis, LincolnColumbia; DreamWorks

Skyfall reigns. 

The new James Bond adventure set a franchise record 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:

  1. Skyfall, $87.8 million
  2. Wreck-It Ralph, $33.1 million
  3. Flight, $15.1 million
  4. Argo, $6.7 million
  5. Taken 2, $4 million
  6. Here Comes the Boom, $2.6 million
  7. Cloud Atlas, $2.53 million
  8. Pitch Perfect, $2.5 million
  9. The Man With the Iron Fists, $2.49 million
  10. Hotel Transylvania, $2.4 million