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APEX Hollywood Shortlist: Bond Proves Unbreakable as Spectre Holds Tight in Top Spot with $35.4M in a Big Weekend for Female Directors

November 16, 2015  | Written by Tomas Romero

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APEX Insight: Turning the very notion of a Bond girl on its ear, a trio of eclectic new films from acclaimed female directors Jessie Nelson, Patricia Riggen and Oscar-winner Angelina Jolie shake up the weekend box office.

Closing in on a staggering $550 million worldwide with an estimated $543.8 million to date and a domestic haul of roughly $130.7 million, James Bond is proving to be bigger than ever in Spectre. And after opening with an estimated $48 million over the weekend in China, where it stands to break records for the biggest three-day opening of a 2-D Hollywood film and largest Chinese IMAX debut of all time, Spectre should have the world to itself for the next few days before a fired-up Katniss Everdeen comes calling on November 20.

And speaking of fired-up females, the Christmas-themed family comedy Love the Coopers delivered a dose of beautifully-wrapped, alpha mom hilarity to theaters over the weekend to the tune of $8.4 million. Starring Diane Keaton as the Martha Stewart-ish matriarch in question, John Goodman, Ed Helms, Amanda Seyfried and Oscar-winners Marisa Tomei and Alan Arkin, Coopers was written by romantic comedy kingpin Steven Rogers (Hope Floats, Kate & Leopold) and directed by award-winning filmmaker Jessie Nelson. And though Nelson hasn’t directed a feature film since 2001’s Oscar-nominated I Am Sam, the fact that she wrote, directed and/or produced such family comedy-drama staples as Corrina, Corrina, Stepmom and The Story of Us should tell you everything you need to know about Coopers. In other words, bring on the dysfunctional family fun!

Also opening wide over the weekend with $5.8 million was The 33, the big-screen adaptation of Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free, Héctor Tobar’s true-life account of the 2010 Chilean mining disaster. Directed by acclaimed Mexican helmer Patricia Riggen (La Misma Luna, Girl in Progress) the gritty drama stars a host of top-notch international talents including Antonio Banderas, Rodrigo Santoro, James Brolin, Katie del Castillo, Lou Diamond Phillips and Oscar-winner Juliette Binoche.

Already a huge, runaway hit in Mexico and Central America where it has been slowly rolling out since early August, The 33 has unearthed a stellar $12.6 million in the region for an estimated worldwide total of $18.5 million. And though the jury is still out on any serious award season kudos, the fact that Pope Francis was so moved by the film that he invited the real-life miners and their families to visit him in Rome last month definitely can’t hurt.

And while a handful of smaller titles opened over the weekend as well – chief among them being the Salman Khan Bollywood smash Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, which opened in eighth place with a three-day take of $2.4 million and the period football tearjerker My All-American, which went wide with an estimated $1.3 million – the title that really lit up social media was director Angelina Jolie’s intimate period drama By the Sea.

Co-starring with husband Brad Pitt for the first time since 2005’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Sea swept up a sultry $95.4K in ten theaters for an estimated $9.5K per screen. No word yet on what Pope Francis thought of this one, but, seeing as he granted Jolie a private audience at the Vatican following a screening of her previous directorial effort (the Oscar-nominated WWII biopic Unbroken) earlier this year, il Papa is clearly a fan.

Weekend Box Office Estimates: November 13-15, 2015