Despite some hubbub over Chinese censorship behind the country’s release of Skyfall, the film is a hit in the region following a terrific $5.1 million Monday opening. Currently standing at $1.04 billion worldwide, the film should bolster its total over the next month thanks to a respondent country who prefers British spies over Batman. While an estimate is yet to be suggested, one could imagine that a performance like this on a typically dry day of the week could result into a hefty box office draw capable of bringing the film another $55 million minimum.
This news comes on the heels of Sunday’s big headline that Skyfall became the first Bond film to reach beyond $300 million in North America alone–a mark typically reserved for legitimate mega-blockbusters. While The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is expected to perform better, as of right now Bond 23 is only the fourth film released in 2012 to pass the milestone.
For those interested in what did not make it beyond The Great Wall, it was the murder of a Chinese security guard by a French assassin (Ola Rapace) before the elevator scene and all references to politics and prostitution. The sound track for the latter remained although subtitles were adapted to reference Severine’s ‘joining the mob.’ Also left out was some Silva backstory relating to Chinese torture.
