Daniel Craig reprises his role of James Bond in the latest Bond film "Spectre." (Photo : Instagram/spectre_007)
"Spectre" is dominating the Chinese box office, grossing $48 million during its Friday-Sunday weekend, a record for a non-3D U.S. film.
The Chinese box-office push brings the film's worldwide gross to $550 million, grossing $140.7 million in the United States after only 10 days.
In the Chinese box office, "Spectre" is just $11 million short of surpassing the entire run of "Skyfall," which grossed $59 million in 2012.
The film's Friday opening set four records in China, including becoming the biggest Friday opening of any 2D U.S. film, the biggest November opening day, the biggest Bond movie opening, and the biggest Sony Pictures opening day of all time.
Sony said that the Chinese box-office performance of "Spectre" was the result of a marketing campaign that included Daniel Craig joining Jack Ma for a live national broadcast to kick off Singles' Day, which was seen by at least 500 million people.
Sony also said that an upcoming episode of the popular variety show, "Day Day Up," will be entirely devoted to the film, expected to reach over 70 million viewers.
Sony's digital partnerships in China include promotions on WeChat and Weibo.
Craig, co-star Lea Seydoux and producer Barbara Broccoli came to China prior to the film's release for a publicity tour, including a premiere attended by 600 people. Seydoux and Broccolli also participated in a Q&A that was streamed to more than 23 million people.
"Spectre" was made with a production budget of $250 million, costing extra millions for marketing expenses. This means that "Spectre" has to gross at least $650 million globally for MGM and EON Productions to break even.
"Skyfall" was the top grosser among all 23 previous Bond films, grossing $1.1 billion worldwide.
