Spectre Tops Friday Box Office With $27.5M, The Peanuts Movie In Second With $12M

Spectre had a view to a killer Friday with $27.5M (including Thursday screenings). The 24th James Bond adventure is now on target for a $74M domestic debut, good enough for the second best Bond opening. The record-holder is Skyfall, which brought in $84M in 2012. Audiences are giving Spectre an 'A-' CinemaScore. That's on par with Daniel Craig's first Bond film Casino Royale, but slightly below the 'A' CinemaScore director Sam Mendes received for his first Bond film.

Charlie Brown may be a blockhead, but The Peanuts Movie is proving to be a blockbuster. It finished in second-place on Friday with $12M and is headed for a $40M+ opening weekend. Its overall CinemaScore is an 'A,' which is excellent, but more importantly, it is receiving an 'A+' from the under 18 crowd.

The Martian has been the North American box office champ four out of the past five weekends, but in week 6 it finds itself in third-place for the first time. Don't feel too bad, the film added $2.7M on Friday and will finish the weekend with $9.5M. By Sunday, it will be less than $3M from crossing the $200M domestic benchmark.

Meanwhile, Bridge of Spies grabbed fourth on Friday with $1.8M, Goosebumps took fifth with $1.7M, Hotel Transylvania 2 nabbed sixth with $866K, Burnt captured seventh with $918K, The Last Witch Hunter earned eighth with $671K, The Intern seized ninth with $547K and Our Brand is Crisis grasped tenth with $460K.

A cryptic message from the past sends James Bond (Daniel Craig) on a rogue mission to Mexico City and eventually Rome, where he meets Lucia Sciarra (Monica Bellucci), the beautiful and forbidden widow of an infamous criminal. Bond infiltrates a secret meeting and uncovers the existence of the sinister organisation known as SPECTRE. Meanwhile back in London, Max Denbigh (Andrew Scott), the new head of the Centre for National Security, questions Bond's actions and challenges the relevance of MI6, led by M (Ralph Fiennes). Bond covertly enlists Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and Q (Ben Whishaw) to help him seek out Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux), the daughter of his old nemesis Mr White (Jesper Christensen), who may hold the clue to untangling the web of SPECTRE. As the daughter of an assassin, she understands Bond in a way most others cannot. As Bond ventures towards the heart of SPECTRE, he learns of a chilling connection between himself and the enemy he seeks, played by Christoph Waltz.

SPECTRE is set for release in the UK on October 26, 2015, and in the US on November 6, 2015.