02/11/2015 - Widest ever film release in the UK and Ireland shatters Harry Potter numbers

Spectre [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile], the 24^th James Bond adventure, has annihilated the UK opening week box office record. The film opened in 647 cinemas on 2,500 screens across the UK and Ireland, making it the widest release of all time in the territory, and took an estimated £41.7 million in its first seven days of release. In the process it broke the box office record of £23.8 million hitherto held by Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. 

In the Netherlands, Spectre collected €3.3 million, surpassing the record set by the previous Bond film Skyfall [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
film profile]. The film also set new records in Finland and Norway with Finland collections being €2.35 million and 24.4 million krone in Norway. In Denmark, Spectre became the biggest three-day opening of all time with 28.1 million krone.

The film has also set a new IMAX standard, recording the highest per-location average in IMAX history as the first film ever to top a $100,000 per-location average, with $105,000 in 47 IMAX sites.

EON Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Studios, and Sony Pictures Entertainment produced Spectre. Producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli said, “We’re so grateful to all our James Bond fans and the British public for making Spectre’s debut in the UK box office history.” 

Peter Taylor, Managing Director Sony Pictures UK, added, “We are delighted that audiences in the UK and Ireland continue to embrace these stories about one of our biggest and best cultural icons. This opening proves once again, that the film world of James Bond speaks to cinema-goers like no other.”