Friday Box Office: ‘No Time To Die’ Passes ‘F9’ As ‘Eternals’ Free Falls

In holdover news for Friday, No Time to Die has earned over $733 million in global grosses, thus passing the $721 million cume of F9. That makes the 25th James Bond film the biggest Hollywood flick in raw global grossers since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ($1.073 billion) in December 2019. Heck, the overseas cume is a remarkable $579 million, well above Star Wars IX’s $559 million overseas cume, making it Hollywood’s biggest foreign grosser since Frozen II ($1.45 billion worldwide including $972 million overseas) which opened two years ago this weekend. The Daniel Craig actioner, which has been available on PVOD since the Tuesday before last, should earn $2.54 million (-44%) in weekend seven for a new $154.5 million domestic cume.

Give or take legs over Thanksgiving and possibly into Christmas, it should end its run with around $161 million domestic, or just above the unadjusted domestic gross of Die Another Day in 2002. Globally, it’s staying strong and may end up closer to $775 million than $750 million, easily making it the third-biggest 007 flick behind Spectre ($881 million) and Skyfall ($1.1 billion). That it’s doing this well overseas with only around $60 million from China (on par with Skyfall but slightly below Spectre’s $83 million gross) is itself of great value, since if China continues to be a wild card then it’ll be all the more important than various Hollywood franchises not remotely count on them to push them over the finish line.

Eternals earned another $3.071 million (-60%) on Friday for a likely $11 million (-59%) weekend and $136 million 17-day total. Black Widow dropped 55% in weekend three after a 68% second-weekend drop, while Spider-Man: Homecoming fell 53% after a 62% drop and Ant-Man and the Wasp fell 43% after a 61% second-weekend drop. Yes, Ghostbusters: Afterlife bit into families, but the MCU is supposed to be “the danger.” Since Disney’s (very good) Encanto is opening on Wednesday, well, at least it has already passed the $132 million gross (in 2008) of The Incredible Hulk. The ambitious but poorly-received fantasy epic crossed $300 million worldwide. It seems to be performing better overseas than in North America, to an extent unusual even for a Marvel movie.

Paramount’s Clifford: The Big Red Dog earned another $2.025 million (-53%) on its second Friday, a sharp drop presumably due to Afterlife’s four-quadrant appeal. The well-liked (by audiences anyway) family comedy will earn $8.51 million (-49%) in weekend two for a $34 million ten-day cume. Clifford is hoping for a Thanksgiving bump, but otherwise it looks like a $55 million domestic finish, on par with Addams Family 2, for the $64 million flick. Warner Bros. and Legendary’s Dune earned another $860,000 (-48%) on Friday for a likely $2.97 million (-46%) weekend and $98.1 million cume. Yeah, it’ll cross $100 million over Thanksgiving. How much higher it climbs will depend on the size of the holiday boost and its participation in the Oscar season.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage will earn $2.83 million (-28%) in weekend eight for a $206.53 million cume, passing Thor: The Dark World ($206 million), Bad Boys for Life ($204 million) and Amazing Spider-Man 2 ($202 million). It should end with just over/under Venom’s $213.5 million domestic gross, a remarkable accomplishment with or without a Covid curve. Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch will earn $900,000 (-49%) In weekend five for a $13.2 million cume. If it can stick around during the Oscar season, it should pass the unadjusted $17 million gross of Rushmore, which is a win in these grim circumstances. Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast will earn $830,000 (-53%) for a $3.3 million cume while Kristen Stewart’s Spencer will earn $630,000 (-59%) for a $6.04 million 17-day cume.