In a rebound weekend at the box office, coming off a slumping month, the second weekend of November finally delivered two hits.

Shooting up to the top of the box office, Spectre took the number one spot with $73 million. Although that number is impressive, it’s disappointing it didn’t match or surpass Skyfall‘s $88.3 million opening weekend, the previous James Bond entry that starred Daniel Craig. With a lot of good will leftover from that film – Skyfall grossed over $1 billion worldwide and Adele’s song, “Skyfall” won an Oscar – it is rather puzzling to see it gross slightly less but still spectacular numbers. That on top of reviews not being up to par with it predecessor- it doesn’t look like Spectre will come close to Skyfall‘s final domestic haul ($304 million). Spectre is the first of two fall box office juggernauts coming out in November, the second being The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2. 

There had been a lot speculation about the films budget – estimated between $250-$300 million – and whether it had the legs to be profitable. Some early predictions put the film’s break-even point at $600 million. Luckily, the film’s worldwide gross already stands at $296 million. Possibly, some of the flop chatter may have been premature.

Coming in at second place was The Peanuts Movie, which took in $45 million. The revival of the long dormant franchise – which cost an estimated $99 million – had been building up hype since the release of the teaser trailer last year. It seems that all the excitement paid off, as nostalgia for the franchise won over into a hefty opening weekend. The victory may be short lived for the CG animated film, as it faces stiff competition in the coming weeks in the form of a Pixar film The Good Dinosaur.

The total box office gross for the top twelve films came in at $155 million.