Comparing U.S. reaction to Skyfall, SPECTRE

SPECTRE promotional art

Taking a deeper dive into box office statistics reveals more details about how the United States isn’t embracing SPECTRE as much as it did Skyfall.

The Box Office Mojo site provides yearly statistics both by U.S.-Canada and by worldwide. Obviously, SPECTRE still is in theaters so it’ll be a while before there are final figures. But you can see the basic trends.

In 2012, Skyfall was the No. 2 movie worldwide at $1.11 billion, behind only Marvel’s The Avengers at $1.5 billion. In the U.S. and Canada, Skyfall was No. 4 at $304.4 million behind The Avengers ($623.4 million), The Dark Knight Rises ($448.1 million) and The Hunger Games ($408 million).

Put another way, the U.S., in terms of 007 box office support, on a relative basis, was tracking pretty closely to the global figure. The U.S. and Canada provided 27.5 percent of the global box office.

Global box office figures can lag on Box Office Mojo. But looking up the 2015 global figures on the morning of Dec. 5, SPECTRE is No. 6 worldwide at $752.6 million. It’s also the top spy movie globally, ahead of Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation’s $682.3 million, which is No. 7 globally.

On the U.S.-Canada chart, SPECTRE was No. 12 through Dec. 3 at $179.1 million. It was about to pass No. 11 Ant-Man at $180.1 million. Meanwhile, Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation is the top spy movie in the region at $195 million, ranked No. 9 overall. Also, the U.S. and Canada is providing 23.8 percent of SPECTRE’s global box office.

Put another way, SPECTRE is noticeably more popular globally on a relatively basis than it is in the U.S. and Canada.

The 2015 rankings, of course, are about to get shuffled again with this month’s release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

None of this means SPECTRE isn’t popular. Studios would love to have the problem of a movie “only” having $750 million-plus in global box office or $175 million-plus in the U.S. and Canada. Just ask the executives at Warner Bros., who’ve had a series of movies (including The Man From U.N.C.L.E.) with a fraction of that box office.

UPDATE: It looks like SPECTRE passed Ant-Man on Friday for No. 11.

SPECTRE earned an estimated $1.6M on Friday. Domestic total is now $180.7M. #Spectre

— BoxOffice (@BoxOffice) December 5, 2015