“Spectre,” the 24th James Bond movie, will officially be released to global theaters on November 6. But its home country, the UK, already got a head start as the film already hit local cinemas on October 27.
As expected, the movie opened on UK theaters with a sizzling hot start, posting a gross of $24.5 million on its first two days. Experts believe that “Spectre” is on course towards equalling if not surpassing the UK box-office opening performance of the previous James Bond movie “Skyfall,” which posted $32.4 million during its first three days when it was released exactly three years ago, details Variety.
In fact, “Spectre” now owns the biggest Tuesday and Wednesday grosses in the UK history and if the movie does well in the international box office as expected, it is likely to match or even surpass the worldwide box-office haul of “Skyfall” in 2012 with a little over $1 billion.
“Skyfall” was the first James Bond movie to have joined the elite $1 Billion Movie Club, composed of all-time films that have grossed $1 billion and up. And if “Spectre” stays true to form, it is likely to be the second movie in the “James Bond” franchise that shall join the elite club.
Producers appear confident that “Spectre” will be able to break the $1 billion box-office sales barrier which “Skyfall” was able to do because they have invested $250 million on the latest James Bond movie. Obviously, they will not stake that huge amount of money if they are not optimistic of being able to recoup their investment.
Daniel Craig’s last stint as 007
“Spectre” is reportedly the last film of actor Daniel Craig as James Bond, who first took on the role of Agent 007 on Her Majesty’s Secret Service in the movie “Casino Royale” shown in 2005.
But the producers and Daniel Craig himself have yet to confirm or deny the reports that the British actor will give up his James Bond suit after “Spectre.”
Spectre has been a sinister organization in past James Bond movies which was then being headed by the diabolical Ernst Blofeld. While initial reports about the movie hinted that Blofeld’s character will be rebooted in “Spectre,” it seems that only his organization will stage a comeback and not his character.
The movie will start when James Bond receives a cryptic message from his past where he shall discover Spectre. Agent 007 will work his way to layers of deceit to unmask the organization even as his boss M fights it out with political forces in the British government to keep the MI6 alive.
In addition to Daniel Craig, Dave Bautista, and Lea Seydoux, “Spectre” will also star Christoph Waltz, Monica Belluci, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner, and Ben Whishaw as Q.
Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes of “American Beauty,” returned to direct “Spectre,” after his successful helming of “Skyfall.”
Evolving character
Actress Naomie Harris will be reprising her role as Eve Moneypenny in “Spectre” for the second time. She says that she is happy that her Moneypenny character has evolved into being a mere professional eye candy for James Bond into something more substantially helpful to Agent 007.
In a recent interview, Harris said that Bond trusts Moneypenny because he tells her what the true mission is about. She said that Bond also asks for her help which shows that Agent 007 respects her and what she does.
She said that Bond and Moneypenny have a special relationship which she is proud to see evolving from flirting around the desk into something more significant to the mission of James Bond.