In the wake of the horrific and senseless attacks in Paris on Friday most thought that the country’s box office would reflect the grieving nation’s somber mood, but even with most of France’s theatres shuttered on Saturday and only a small number having their debut on Sunday, Spectre had a $14.6 million opening in the country, including a record-breaking first Wednesday where over 850,000 tickets were sold.

New openings in several other key markets, including China, helped the film remain on top of the international charts once more. The latest Bond rose 30% to post a $150.2 million take in its 3^rd week in theatres. Britain’s premier man of mystery again showed solid legs in the UK, dropping just 36% from last weekend to post a $13.1 million and reach a $121 million cumulative in Bond’s home market. In Australia, the film debuted to $8.7 million, staying generally even with Skyfall’s opening in 2012, though with the Australian dollar’s roughly 40% decline against the US dollar since then this implies a significant increase in viewers. In Germany, where Sony and Eon’s latest Bond adventure notched an astounding $20 million opening last weekend, the film added an equally impressive $13.3 million in its second week. It reached a solid $11.8 million cume in the Netherlands, and arrived at $10.7 million in Russia and $10 million in Italy. China posed Spectre’s biggest test of the week and it passed with flying colors. It opened to $48.2 million, setting a weekend record for foreign 2D films in the Middle Kingdom after a persistent marketing campaign that included a star-studded Beijing premier.

Bollywood had some big news as well. Indian superstar Salman Khan’s Prem Ratan Dhan Bayo, from Fox’s joint Indian production house Fox Star Studios, made $31 million in its opening weekend. Not only did it come in second on the overall global chart, a feat that is exceedingly rare for an Indian picture, it also passed 2014’s Happy New Year to claim the biggest Bollywood opening of all time. The film also set a record for an Indian release in Britain, where it earned $1.5 million, and took off with $2.4 million from just 286 cinemas in the US. Third spot on the international chart went to The Priests, a Korean drama about two clergymen who get sucked into a complicated supernatural criminal case. It opened in first place, ahead of Spectre, at $9.3 million.

On the domestic front Spectre remained at the top spot for its second week in the US and Canada, beating a host of newcomers including Love The Coopers and My All American. It earned $35.4 million this weekend, reaching a $130.7 million cume in what should turn out to be its biggest market. Second place went to The Peanuts Movie, which like last weekend swept up most of the leftovers from the non-Spectre crown. It earned $24.2 million, in its second week and reached a domestic cumulative of $82.5 million. Newcomer Love The Coopers, starring Diane Keaton, Olivia Wilde, Amanda Seyfried, John Goodman and Ed Helms, came in next with an $8.4 million debut. Next came The Martian, which once more stuck around the top five and earned $6.7 Million for a domestic cume of $207.4 million. After that , with a $ 5.3 million US debut from 2,452 theaters, was newcomer The 33, a joint Chilean production with Warner Bros. starring Antonio Banderas as one of the miners trapped in the 2010 rescue effort that transfixed the whole world. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s By the Sea wasn’t so lucky. The power couple’s passion project earned $9.4K per theatre, taking $95K from ten locations. With its $30 million budget, this isn’t just a labor of love but a significant investment on the part of Universal, which at this point looks unlikely to pay off.

Next weekend we’ll see the launch of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 and Sony’s The Night Before and STX’s Secret in Their Eyes, a remake of 2009 Argentinian Oscar winner El Secreto de Sus Ojos.

Lorenzo Soria