The cheesy headlines almost write themselves: “Bond does Spectre-tacular business at the box office!” “Boffo Bondage For Blighty!” But behind the puntastic fun is the truth: the latest James Bond outing, Spectre**, is setting box office records, having overtaken Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban with the biggest opening in UK box office history.
Spectre took £41.7 million in the UK since it opened on October 26, and has racked up an estimated £80.4 million worldwide. IMAX records have also fallen to its mighty rampage, as the film became the first to ever top a $100,000 per-location average, displacing Transformers: Dark Of The Moon.
Bond’s next big challenge will be America, where he lands on November 6 and looks set to rule the charts there. If this keeps up, 007’s latest should best Skyfall’s $1.1 billion worldwide total and will certainly up the stakes for studios looking to steal it away from Sony’s clutches as MGM’s distribution deal comes up for grabs again. James Bond, then, has indeed returned.