Even Shy Of ‘Skyfall,’ ‘Spectre’ Picked Up Sluggish Box Office

It would be understandable if the makers and distributor of the 007 film Spectre felt under appreciated after it replaced last week’s empty theaters with crowds. Spectre racked up nearly $300 million in global ticket sales — only to receive lukewarm press because it fell $20M short of the $90.6M domestic opening B.O. haul of 2012’s Skyfall, the 13th highest grossing film of all time at $1.1 billion. Indeed, any other movie but James Bond would be drawing raves from box office pundits like myself for plotting a course that likely will lead it to $900M at the worldwide box office, or close to it.

But that’s part and parcel of the ultra-high creative and financial expectations that the go with 007. It’s a high-stakes property, but whenever you compare a franchise title against one of its previous glories, you’re always going to come up short. As Spectre director Sam Mendes told Deadline last week: “Everyone has an opinion about Bond, so there’s no conceivable way of pleasing everybody. The job that you have is to cut out the white noise and make the movie you want to see and you must not compromise that.”

There is some truth in that, even when evaluating a performance that is under more of a white-hot light than usual because Sony’s deal is up, and Warner Bros and every other studio would love to be 007’s new home. All of them want to be sure that they’ll make money.