Spectre retains box-office lead

Diane Keaton and John Goodman star in Love the Coopers. It came in third at last weekend’s box office and made about $8.3 million.
Diane Keaton and John Goodman star in Love the Coopers. It came in third at last weekend’s box office and made about $8.3 million.

LOS ANGELES -- Women owned last weekend's theaters as directors of three high-profile premieres opened across the country -- Jessie Nelson's Love the Coopers and Patricia Riggen's The 33 nationwide and Angelina Jolie Pitt's By the Sea in limited release. But last week's powerhouses Spectre and The Peanuts Movie won at the box office.

In its second week at the top, the Columbia/MGM production Spectre added about $34 million in ticket sales in U.S. and Canadian theaters. Though nearly a 50 percent drop in week-to-week comparisons, the 24th film in the super-spy franchise and fourth led by Daniel Craig has grossed about $129 million domestically. Considering its continued success at the global box office -- the film has already broken countless records and is on pace to set more in China -- it is well on its way to surpassing its $245 million price tag.

The Peanuts Movie finished second once more, adding $24 million to last week's debut. The 20th Century Fox picture suffered an estimated 45 percent drop in sales, though it continues to be one of the few pictures targeting families and youth.

Coming in third and leading all new releases was Nelson's Love the Coopers. The CBS Films movie, distributed with Lionsgate, came in well over projections at about $8.3 million for the weekend.

The comedy about four generations of a family coming together on Christmas Eve stars Diane Keaton, John Goodman and Olivia Wilde, among others. Its star power, however, received only a B-minus grade from audience polling firm CinemaScore and a 16 percent critics approval rating on review site Rotten Tomatoes.

As the season's first premiere with a holiday theme, costing less than $18 million, expectations are that its performance will improve as the Thanksgiving weekend nears. Love the Coopers will be joined this week by The Night Before as seasonal movies.

Warner Bros. and Alcon Entertainment's The 33 is a Hollywood dramatization of a 2010 Chilean mining accident that left 33 people trapped underground for 69 days. Starring Antonio Banderas, it landed in the fifth spot, behind The Martian, which grossed an additional $6.7 million in its seventh week. The 33 debuted with $5.8 million in ticket sales, well below projections of $8 million.

Audiences gave the Riggen-directed film an A-minus, despite only 40 percent positive Rotten Tomatoes reviews. The film, which cost $25 million to make, tracked the best among adult Hispanic moviegoers in the West and South.

Rounding out the female-directed weekend, Jolie Pitt's Universal Pictures drama By the Sea opened in 10 theaters. The French-flavored movie, which stars real-life spouses Jolie Pitt and Brad Pitt as a couple coming apart, took in more than $95,000 in ticket sales, almost $40,000 below its first weekend projections, for a per-screen average of about $9,500. For comparison, Spotlight, Tom McCarthy's drama about the Boston Globe's 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation of priest sexual abuse, averaged $60,455 on five screens in its debut.

Last week, the Open Road Films movie extended to 60 screens, pulling in almost $1.4 million.

Just missing the top 10 was fellow new release My All American, about University of Texas football star Freddie Steinmark and his battle with cancer. Acquired by Aviron Pictures for nearly $1 million, the picture took in about $1.4 million from 1,565 screens, $2 million less than projections. The film, written and directed by Angelo Pizzo, received an A CinemaScore grade despite poor critic reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.

This week begins the much-anticipated surge in moviegoing already kickstarted by Spectre and The Peanuts Movie. On the horizon are The Hunger Games: Mockingjay -- Part 2, which arrives today, followed by Pixar's The Good Dinosaur on Wednesday and Disney's Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens on Dec. 18.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Rentrak:

  1. Spectre, Columbia/MGM, $33,681,104, 3,929 locations, $8,572 average, $128,981,285, 2 weeks.

  2. The Peanuts Movie, 20th Century Fox, $24,013,538, 3,902 locations, $6,154 average, $82,303,394, 2 weeks.

  3. Love the Coopers, Lionsgate, $8,317,545, 2,603 locations, $3,195 average, $8,317,545, 1 week.

  4. The Martian, 20th Century Fox, $6,712,171, 2,788 locations, $2,408 average, $207,394,787, 7 weeks.

  5. The 33, Warner Bros., $5,787,266, 2,452 locations, $2,360 average, $5,787,266, 1 week.

  6. Goosebumps, Columbia, $4,633,112, 2,805 locations, $1,652 average, $73,470,502, 5 weeks.

  7. Bridge of Spies, Disney, $4,268,772, 2,688 locations, $1,588 average, $61,675,326, 5 weeks.

  8. Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, Fox International Productions, $2,425,585, 287 locations, $8,452 average, $2,813,018, 1 week.

  9. Hotel Transylvania 2, Columbia, $2,314,063, 1,834 locations, $1,262 average, $165,208,755, 8 weeks.

  10. The Last Witch Hunter, Lionsgate, $1,482,463, 1,479 locations, $1,002 average, $26,059,042, 4 weeks.

  11. My All American, Aviron Pictures, $1,365,000, 1,565 locations, $872 average, $1,365,000, 1 week.

  12. Spotlight, Open Road, $1,353,630, 60 locations, $22,560 average, $1,800,400, 2 weeks.

  13. The Intern, Warner Bros., $1,194,150, 855 locations, $1,397 average, $73,341,892, 8 weeks.

  14. Burnt, The Weinstein Co., $1,127,264, 1,614 locations, $698 average, $12,722,783, 3 weeks.

  15. Suffragette, Focus Features, $1,025,225, 496 locations, $2,067 average, $2,569,505, 4 weeks.

  16. Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, Paramount, $891,545, 785 locations, $1,136 average, $17,788,862, 4 weeks.

  17. Sicario, Lionsgate, $760,555, 529 locations, $1,438 average, $45,215,311, 9 weeks.

  18. La guerre des tuques 3D, Entertainment One Films, $673,101, 76 locations, $8,857 average, $673,101, 1 week.

  19. Woodlawn, Pure Flix, $625,112, 808 locations, $774 average, $13,605,467, 5 weeks.

  20. Room, A24 Films, $563,673, 133 locations, $4,238 average, $2,272,968, 5 weeks.

MovieStyle on 11/20/2015

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