Based on some comments on my box office post and on Scott's review of Quantum of Solace, people want to talk about this. I want to talk about it too. So would someone who saw Quantum over the weekend please explain to me why this random action movie was released under the "James Bond" banner?

You know, there was that scene in Casino Royale where Bond, asked if he would like his vodka-martini shaken or stirred, replies: "Does it look like I give a damn?" At the time I -- and most others, it seemed -- thought this was actually pretty cool, part of Bond's facelift for the new millennium. The franchise retained its essence in that terrific film, but Bond was a little different: a little grittier, a little tougher, a little less studied and exaggerated in his suaveness. Besides, this was supposed to be a prequel. Bond is still learning the attitude and affectations that will eventually make him Bond, James Bond. Not to mention the fact that he ordered that martini after losing a fortune in poker.

After watching Quantum, I think back to the Casino Royale martini scene, and I'm dispirited. Because the truth is, his one petulant outburst aside, James Bond does care how he takes his martini. And I'm worried that the people behind this new, fantastically successful incarnation of the franchise really -- wrongly -- believe that he doesn't.

The week you Twilight fans have been waiting for has finally arrived, and in just a few days from now entire worlds will collide! Yup, I'm talking about civilized people who decided to skip on over to see Quantum of Solace in its second week versus TWILIGHT FANS GALORE! Tons of screaming pre-teen girls and their equally-as-obsessed mothers storming movie theaters across the country, demanding their Bella, their Edward ... their blood!

We kid, but it's always fun to ponder how well a hotly-anticipated film will do in its opening weekend. Could Twilight beat Quantum of Solace's $70 million take? Is that even possible? Or does the Twilight fanbase appear larger than it really is? When it's all said and done, what if Twilight fails to top $40 million in its opening weekend? Would that be considered a failure? And if not, what would be considered a failure? If Twilight doesn't meet a certain number at the box office this weekend, could those three Twilight sequels currently in development be in jeopardy? So many questions, so many different possibilities -- how well do you think Twilight will do this weekend?

For a franchise that's more than 45 years old, Bond is on one hell of a kick. Ever since Pierce Brosnan took over in 1995, every James Bond film has grossed more than the last, and that trend will continue with Quantum of Solace. The awkwardly-titled 22nd film in the franchise beat the previous Bond opening weekend record -- held, actually, by Die Another Day, which was eventually passed by Casino Royale later in its release -- by, oh, $23 million. Quantum's $70.4 million bow is also the third highest opening of 2008, behind only Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and The Dark Knight.

And that, actually, is pretty much all there is to report for the wide releases, since Quantum of Solace scared everyone else off the date. Last weekend's winners, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and Role Models both held up well, with the former pulling ahead of Wall-E. The Secret Life of Bees hangs around at #8, proving to be a fall sleeper. Saw V will, as expected, finish just behind its immediate predecessor.

The full list of estimates, after the jump.

When Red Cliff (Part 1) rolled out across most of Asia in July, John Woo's historical action epic generated very good box office returns, and its recent release in Japan continues the trend. Topping the charts for the second week in a row, according to Variety, Red Cliff has earned more than $18 million so far.

Part 2 of the four-hour plus Red Cliff is due for January release in Asia, and an international (i.e. short) version is also being prepped for the beginning of the year. Theatrical distribution deals are set in Europe (France, Finland, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, and Norway), with Summit Entertainment (distributor of Twilight and Sex Drive) handling international sales.

Still, no US distribution deal has been announced. What's holding things up? Will Summit take it on? Will North American audiences ever get to set Red Cliff on the big screen, where it clearly belongs? Or are distributors spooked by the prospect of marketing one more foreign-language action epic?

Red Cliff is based on the classic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms; the title refers to the location of a battle involving more than a million soldiers that brought an end to the Han Dynasty in 208 AD, resulting in the division of China into three kingdoms. Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (Lust, Caution), Takeshi Kaneshiro (House of Flying Daggers), Zhang Fengyi (The Emperor and the Assassin), Chang Chen (Blood Brothers), and Lin Chiling (gorgeous Taiwanese model in her acting debut) star.

This weekend's success stories:
1. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (Miramax)
2. JCVD (Peace Arch)
3. I've Loved You So Long (Sony Classics)

The critical consensus on Mark Herman's concentration camp children's tale The Boy in the Striped Pajamas dropped a bit over the weekend (from 71% positive to 62% at Rotten Tomatoes), which didn't keep it from scoring a big win at the box office. Opening at 17 theaters, Striped Pajamas earned an estimated $15,000 per screen, according to Box Office Mojo. If you saw Striped Pajamas this weekend, are you recommending it to your friends? Is the holiday season the right time for a sober drama with (reportedly) a devastating climax?

Gotham moviegoers ignored minority sniping from several major publications and gave the reinvigorated Jean-Claude Van Damme a chance, rewarding Mabrouk El Mechri's action / comedy / drama JCVD with $23,300 in total estimated returns at the two theaters where it opened. JCVD is too self-satisfied and drenched in style for my taste, but Van Damme is great fun to watch and the film itself overcomes its limitations to deliver an entertaining experience. Are you planning to see it when it opens near you, or will you wait for the DVD?

Kristen Scott Thomas reportedly gives an award-worthy performance in Philippe Claudel's French-language family drama I've Loved You So Long. In its third week of release, the film saw an increase of 54.6% in earnings, despite adding just two theaters (still not in my area). That indicates very positive word-of-mouth recommendations. If you've seen it and encouraged others to see it, what in particular moved you or touched you? Was it because Thomas is good in it? Or is it just a strong movie overall?

When filling out the box office chart that's below the fold, I accidentally mistyped Madagascar as Badagascar. I didn't mean it. Of this decade's slew of random non-Pixar talking-animal cartoons, Madagascar and Happy Feet are far and away the best, so I'm glad that the former, at least, is now a bona fide franchise. (There were rumors of a second Happy Feet, but that project seems to have stalled.) Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa opened to a huge $63.5 million this weekend, a $16 million improvement on its 2005 predecessor. Animated films' staying power is unpredictable (though generally stronger than average), but $175 million seems assured and $250 million is not out of the question.

Role Models' $19 million opening is less ginormous, but no less notable. For an R-rated comedy with no real stars and no franchise behind it, that's a major coup. I suspect word-of-mouth will help the film in the weeks to come.

Soul Men, on the other hand, failed to capitalize on the cache of Samuel L. Jackson and the late Bernie Mac. Black audiences would have turned out in droves for the feel-good comedy. Lionsgate would have gone to town with it.

With last weekend's box office hit on account of Halloween falling on Friday, this weekend's drop figures -- save Saw V's -- looked pretty good across the board. Most notably, people seem to be responding well to Clint Eastwood's Changeling, which held on to fourth place without much of a screen count jump.

The full estimates after the jump.

If you lived in England, you could have seen Quantum of Solace, like, six times already. Did you know that? How does it make you feel? Is it inappropriate, at this historic juncture, to say that I'm kind of outraged about this? Worse: it will open in fifty-seven (57) new markets this week, while we wait for November 14th. Casino Royale opened in a few countries a day or two ahead, which was mildly pride-rankling, but this is ridiculous.

My (largely tongue-in-cheek) America-centrism aside, Quantum of Solace made $39 million last weekend in the U.K., France and Sweden. According to Variety, that's comfortably a record for a film opening in so few territories. In the U.K. alone, Quantum topped Casino Royale's first-weekend take by 35%.

In America (U-S-A! U-S-A!), Casino Royale opened to $40.8 million around the same time of year in 2006. A UK-type spike domestically would put Quantum at around $55 million in two weeks, which actually seems about right. Casino Royale came on the heels of a bunch of Pierce Brosnan installments that many people considered middling (though I should note that the series' grosses nonetheless rose steadily through the Brosnan years). Bond is back now, and everyone knows it. Quantum of Solace will be the biggest Bond yet.

The day before opening, I made an educated guess that we'd see a sing-along incarnation of High School Musical 3: Senior Year soon enough. However, while I thought that Disney might go for the relatively open weekends of November 14th or December 5th, last week's 65% drop in business suggests that repeat viewing has already somewhat exhausted itself and that the studio better milk their cash cow dry a bit sooner, so on November 7th, the lyric-laden version of HSM3 will pop up in 125 digital theaters nationwide.

There's something to be said for the digital aspect of this release. Though I have friends and colleagues who still cheer 35mm all the way, to dismiss the merits of digital projection -- whether in this or better cases -- seems downright foolish. Who knows: with any luck, we'll be treated to a digital release of Saw School Musical come next October...

If you woke up this Saturday and looked at the box office returns from Friday, you probably noticed something strange. Saw V was cheerfully occupying the top spot despite having slid a whopping 78% from the previous Friday. Last weekend's winner, High School Musical 3, was sitting at number five with $1.7 million, a 90% drop. Ninety percent? What the hell is going on here?

Then you probably thought about it for a second and palm-smacked your forehead. Friday, of course, was October 31st, which meant that virtually all of HSM's target audience was out trick-or-treating. Some comparatively smaller percentage of Saw fans was out partying, or whatever it is the kids are doing these days. HSM recovered admirably, leapfrogging back into first, but Halloween still hurt: that 65% drop isn't great for a kidflick, though it's more in line with the pattern of eagerly awaited franchise sequels. We'll see what happens next week.

As for Saw V, it's currently running about $5 million behind its immediate predecessor, although the Halloween Friday took its toll here too -- it's probably fair to call them even at this point. Even if Saw V continues the franchise's declining trend, it's still a cash cow. My guess is we'll see a couple more theatrical sequels, and then infinite direct-to-DVD entries. Jigsaw will never die.

There were some newcomers. Zack and Miri Make a Porno's $10.7 million take was roughly in line with Kevin Smith's best showings; only 2001's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back fared better, and barely at that. (It's probably worth noting that this is also by far the worst opening for a film starring Seth Rogen.) Changeling respectably, if unspectacularly, expanded to 1,850 screens, landing in fourth with $9.4 million. That would be more auspicious if the film were expected to be an awards player, but that doesn't seem to be the case. The Haunting of Molly Hartley, a horror offering for the tween set, actually managed an okay $6 million -- not bad when you don't even have a real distributor.

The full estimates after the jump.

The Halloween weekend scared up frighteningly weak numbers for bigger studio releases. How did independent films fare?

Winners:
1. My Name is Bruce (Image)
2. Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom (Logo)
3. Religulous (Lionsgate)

Let's hear it for Bruuuuce! (Not, not Springsteen.) Ladies and gentlemen, the fabulous Bruce Campbell debuted at the top of the heap among limited releases, with a per-screen average of $18,800, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. Opening at one theater in New York, My Name is Bruce features Campbell as both star and director. Campbell's site lists upcoming screenings and appearances by The Man Himself.

Romantic comedy Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom fared well in its second week of release, making an estimated $14,820 per screen, representing a normal drop of 50%. Are there enough loyal fans of the Logo TV series out there to support a wider release? It will expand to Detroit, Houston, San Francisco, Palm Springs, and Ocean, New Jersey on Friday; the official site has complete theater information.

Now in its fifth week, Religulous continues to draw audiences eager to see Bill Maher's take on organized religion. Earning $1,358 per screen, the film has grossed $11,452,000 so far; it recently became the highest-grossing doc of the year and is among the top 10 highest-grossing docs of all time, according to Docsider.

Not Winners / Indie Horror Scorecard:
1. Dear Zachary (Oscilloscope)
2. Splinter (Magnolia)
3. Eden Lake (Third Rail)

Despite our editor-in-chief's highest recommendation, Dear Zachary only made $2,800 at its single engagement. Perhaps word-of-mouth will build? That's still better than highly-regarded horror pic, Splinter, which managed only $2,200 each at four theaters (per Leonard Klady), or well-reviewed Brit thriller Eden Lake, which got dumped by the Weinsteins onto their loss-leader distribution arm Third Rail Releasing and drew just $550 per screen at 10 theaters.

I'm still reeling from Body of Lies' remarkable box office flameout. The $70-million, Ridley Scott-directed, heavily-advertised spy thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe opened three weekends ago to third place and 12.8 million dollars, and will struggle to get to $35 million domestic by the end of its theatrical run. What the hell happened? A B-grade Jack Ryan movie with Ben Affleck can make almost four times that, and a film with this sort of pedigree winds up dead on arrival?

The answer, of course, is that The Sum of All Fears isn't the proper point of comparison. Because it turns out that Body of Lies isn't much of a "spy thriller" after all. Writing Part One of this column back in the summer, I mused that Scott and screenwriter William Monahan were going to have a tough time making author David Ignatius's ultra-realistic depiction of CIA grunt work into compelling pop cinema. I was probably right, because they didn't really bother. They responded to the problem by making the film less crackerjack and more political; less exciting, perhaps, but smarter, sadder. In doing so, they threw their lot in with the sorry batch of Iraq War films rather than Jack Ryan. It was a bold choice that resulted in one of the best movies of the year – and a resounding commercial failure.

Politically, Ignatius' novel more or less kept its head down. There was certainly a sense that Roger Ferris, the protagonist played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the film, was frustrated with constant, counterproductive interference by his US-stationed superior Ed Hoffman (Crowe), but the subtext of this, if any, was soft: the problem wasn't any systemic defect but rather just that Hoffman was an insufferable micromanager. The book mostly concentrated on the fascinating (albeit not terribly cinematic) nitty-gritty of CIA field work in the Middle East.

1. Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom (Logo)
2. Synecdoche, New York (Sony Pictures Classics)
3. Let the Right One In (Magnolia)

How on earth did an unheralded, under-the-radar movie from an untested distribution outfit manage to nearly out-earn a much-advertised period flick starring one of the biggest tabloid stars in the world, directed by one of the most respected? Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom, based on the Logo TV series, opened at theaters in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, and Washington DC over the weekend and grossed $32,200 per screen, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. That puts it just behind Clint Eastwood's Changeling, starring Angelina Jolie. The romantic comedy follows four men and their partners as they travel to Martha's Vineyard and deal with relationship travails. The first release by Logo's film distribution unit, indieWIRE says that Noah's Arc "is already 2008's highest grossing narrative gay film overall."

If a romantic comedy starring gay African Americans sounds like an unlikely box office winner, what about a movie with a nearly unpronounceable title featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman as an aging theater director? Not exactly sexy, I suppose, but Synecdoche, New York nonetheless grossed $19,222 per screen at nine theaters in New York and Los Angeles. I don't think anyone expects this to be a huge box office smash, yet that's a good, strong start for Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut, one of the more intriguing films to be released this fall season.

The top two films at the box office this weekend couldn't be more different -- which might help explain why both had such strong starts. The third film in the Disney Channel's wholesome, wildly popular High School Musical franchise, and the first to hit theaters, had a $42 million debut, and will go on to be at least as wildly profitable as its predecessors. $30.5 million for Saw V is basically in line with its three immediate predecessors, all of which had first weekends between $31 and $33 million. The films' final grosses have been steadily declining since the second film, however, with the most recent entry dropping like a rock and managing only $63 million total. We'll see if that trend continues. I'd say, though, that this debut guarantees a sixth Saw for next Halloween. As Eric wrote yesterday, it is now the most lucrative horror franchise in film history.

The only other new wide release this weekend was Pride & Glory, which New Line more or less dumped. It did a predictably weak $6.3 million, good enough for fifth place.

Oliver Stone's W. took a big hit, as the people who needed to see it apparently saw it last weekend. It dropped nearly 50%, with a $25-28 million finish looking likely. Max Payne held up even worse after last week's strong debut. Meanwhile, two films from the early fall doldrums continue to emerge as success stories: Eagle Eye and Beverly Hills Chihuahua are both still hanging around, and both looking to reach $100 million before all is said and done.

In 20th place, Clint Eastwood's Changeling made a strong limited bow: half a million on fifteen screens, for $33,000 per screen. It goes wide next week. A bit further down, the annual rerelease of Tim Burton's A Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D couldn't do much business, ending up with $372,000 on almost 300 screens.

The full estimates after the jump.

When you shelled out nine bucks this weekend to see if Jigsaw would do anything new in Saw V (answer: nope), you were also contributing to a milestone. With the Friday-Sunday $30 million haul, the Saw series is now the highest grossing horror franchise in history, with a cumulative domestic gross of $316 million. Just think of all the microcassette tapes and countdown timers that kind of money could buy!

Of course, the other heavy hitters in this field -- Halloween, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street -- were mostly released in the 1980s, when movie tickets were a lot cheaper. It's no surprise that a franchise launched in the 2000s would be more lucrative. Still, Saw has made its loot in just five films, compared to Elm Street's eight (including Freddy vs. Jason), Halloween's nine (including last year's remake), and Friday the 13th's eleven (including Freddy vs. Jason again).

A curious fact: Prior to this weekend, the race was surprisingly close. Box Office Mojo has the Friday the 13th series at $315 million, Elm Street at $307 million, and Halloween at $275 million. (Lionsgate's press release touting the Saw achievement has the Halloween series at $307 million, but I don't know where they're getting that from.)

But Jigsaw shouldn't rest on his laurels just yet. The Friday the 13th reboot due in February is liable to put Jason Voorhees in the lead again, although that will be short-lived if the seemingly inevitable Saw VI does indeed appear next October. If the Friday remake is successful, though, it could lead to more sequels and more competition. Personally, I'd rather have a mute, hockey-masked punisher as the all-time box office champ over a cancer-brained faux-intellectual who can't shut up. But that's just me! You can vote however you want. In the meantime, congrats to Saw for out-grossing Freddy, Michael, and Jason, and congrats to me for not making a pun on the word "grossing."

Here are this weekend's box office success stories in the indie film world:

1. Frontrunners (Oscilloscope)
2. Rachel Getting Married (Sony Pictures Classics)
3. Fireproof (Samuel Goldwyn Films)
4. Religulous (Lionsgate Films)

Caroline Suh's documentary Frontrunners (pictured), which follows four teens running for elective office at a prestigious high school in New York City, had its world premiere at South by Southwest and was acquired for distribution by Oscilloscope, founded by Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, in July. Opening at one theater in New York, the film earned $7,400 over the weekend, according to Box Office Mojo, the third highest per-screen total among limited releases. That's a very good accomplishment for the fledgling Oscilloscope.

Jonathan Demme's drama Rachel Getting Married expanded from 27 to 69 theaters in selected cities across the country (including mine) and increased solidly to a per-screen average of $10,464. It's earned more than $1.75 million so far. I saw it on Saturday and was disappointed by its utterly ordinary, overly familiar dysfunctional family routines and excessive padding for what is a very thin story, but a ton of people showed up for the early afternoon screening, so I guess everyone loves weddings and the promise of battling sisters working out all their problems in a single weekend.

On the "pro" side of religion, Fireproof, a drama starring Kirk Cameron, added even more theaters (up to 905 now) and dropped very little, percentage wise, totaling more than $20 million in four weeks of release. On the "con" side, Religulous, a doc by Larry Charles featuring Bill Maher, dropped a few theaters (to 504 locations) yet still burst past the $9 million mark, a remarkable performance for a documentary.