James Bond is back in Quantum of Solace, the 22^nd entry in the popular franchise and he has the box office all to himself this weekend. Daniel Craig returns in his second outing as the dashing spy and expectations are through the roof after the successful reboot of the franchise with 2006’s Casino Royale. Casino Royale was met with universal applause for its grittier take on the Bond character, which is more in line with the action series of today, such as the Jason Bourne trilogy. Unlike other James Bond films which were self contained, Quantum of Solace is different from the other films in the franchise in that it is more like a sequel with the story continuing from the last film. The film picks up with Bond seeking revenge for the murder of his girlfriend, Vesper, in the previous film. During his quest for revenge, Bond stumbles upon a dastardly plot by the shadowy organization known as QUANTUM, setting up the events for this film. Casino Royale performed very well, opening with $40.8M and going on to gross $167M in the US of A, to become the highest grossing James Bond film of all time. Quantum looks to shatter that record. Casino Royale did the impossible in bringing new fans to the longest running franchise in history, and Quantum of Solace looks to have a major jump at the box office much the way that the 2^nd and 3^rd Bourne movies did from the original. I would expect Quantum of Solace to surge 60% from Casino Royale’s $40.8M opening weekend take, grossing somewhere in the neighborhood of $65M.

Among holdovers, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa should have another nice weekend with zero competition out there. I would expect a drop of about 35% and a final weekend take of about $41M. Role Models, the raunchy comedy starring Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott, got off to an impressive start last weekend, grossing $19.2M, and it looks to enjoy another strong weekend at the box office. With positive word of mouth and no new competition in the comedy arena, Role Models should drop a slim 35%, grossing $12.6M this weekend. To see the rest of my predictions, check out the chart below.