Skyfall Takes Weekend Box Office, Sets New Bond Franchise Record

made $33 million on Friday, setting a new opening-day record for a James Bond movie, and is expected to make upwards of $80 million in its opening weekend, also a series best for the twenty-third Bond film.The movie has enjoyed strong reviews and word-of-mouth, a record-breaking opening in the United Kingdom and, of course, a year-long, de-facto ad campaign as a result of the character’s fiftieth anniversary.Last week’s holdovers Wreck-It Ralph and Flight are expected to come in second and third, with $31 million and $13 million, respectively, followed by Argo and Taken 2, which round out the top five.The holiday movie season seems to have begun in earnest; while Skyfall is raising the box office over last year’s numbers in the same week, the final Twilight film will drop next week, along with the much-anticipated Lincoln by Steven Spielberg, which has been making huge numbers in previews this week. Red Dawn and Rise of the Guardians follow the weekend after that, and within a month of Twilight‘s release, Warner will be dropping the first installment of Peter Jackson’s trilogy based on The Hobbit.