‘Quantum Of Solace’ Shows Box Office Balls

Take a short break from coughing up charred trailer siding to glance at the weekend US numbers:

1. Quantum of Solace – $US70.4 million
Having the playing field all to itself couldn’t have hurt the second installment of the Daniel Craig franchise reboot, and it didn’t: The broodiest Bond yet earned $US70.4 million on approximately 5,900 screens—the highest opening not just of any Bond film, but of any espionage drama in history. Today’s trade ads boast Solace’s hefty take with the agent screaming in agony as Le Chiffre takes a double-knotted rope to his fourth and fifth digits.

2. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa – $US36.13 million
David Schwimmer the Giraffe should enjoy his last hurrah before John Travolta the Spayed German Shepherd bolts in to steal his long-necked thunder.

3. Role Models – $US11.71 million
Paul Rudd’s SNL hosting triumph only helped boost ticket sales for Role Models, bringing in a contingent of horny Ruddites hoping for an unpixelated glimpse of the goodies, and ended up laughing so hard their eyes bled.

4. High School Musical 3: Senior Year – $US5.879 million
If your one excuse for not seeing HSM3 so far was the fact that it features neither Officer John McClane nor the phrase, “Yippee ki-yay, motherfucker!” well, then, you’ve just run out of excuses:

5. Changeling – $4.247 million
If you haven’t yet caught The Changeling, we highly recommend you do. Yes, it will require you overlook star Angelina Jolie’s well-documented uncoolness for a couple of hours, but this could well be one the last performances from the actress before she wanders off the Ghanaian sunset three decades from now.

• November 14-16, 2008 [Box Office Mojo]