Last week, I reported on the U.K. opening for the new James Bond film "Spectre" and that it was possibly headed to become one of the five biggest top opening weekend box office grossers in the country’s history. Well, the numbers came in early last week, and not only was it in the top five, it was at the top.of the list.

"Spectre" officially had the biggest b.o. opening week for any film ever in the U.K., grossing $63.8 million in the first seven days. That beat the previous No.1 record holder, "Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows Part 2." And the film’s international release expanded to other countries, including Scandinavia, where it also broke the opening day gross for any film in Finland and Norway. In addition, it broke the three day opening record for any film in Denmark. As of right now, the overseas gross for the film is at over $200 million, with a total of $300 million worldwide in less then two weeks. And it hasn’t even broken out wide yet in the rest of Europe and the world.

Though, keep in mind that all these records are practically certain to be broken again in just two months, when the new "Star Wars" film opens worldwide.

As for here in the good ol’ U.S.A., "Spectre" was no doubt going to be the number one film this weekend, and it was, with a very impressive $73 million. And yet that falls $15 million short of the previous Bond film, "Skyfall," which opened to over $88 million. Still, who’s going to cry about those numbers? Sony Pictures was even low-balling their predictions, saying that they were projecting it to do $60-65 million this weekend to be on the safe side. However, "Spectre" looks headed to be another worldwide billion dollar b..o. grosser like "Skyfall."

And it has to be. The reason is because, a box office analysis report earlier this week on "Spectre’s" b.o. outlook stated that the film had to gross at least $650 million just to break even. And believe it or not, only 90 films to date have ever hit the mark or more in worldwide grosses.

The reason "Spectre" has to do that well is because of the film’s huge $250 million production budget (though some have said $300 million is closer to reality); add to that another $100 million for marketing. But also because of the complex financing arrangement for all the Bond films since "Casino Royale" for which the production costs were split up between Sony, MGM, Eon Productions and other financiers. They all have to split up the revenues from the film after the exhibitors take their cut.

Meanwhile Daniel Craig has done pretty well for himself. Actually, "Spectre" was originally conceived to be a two-part film and Craig was asking for $50 million, $25 million for each film. But when those plans were dropped to make just one film, Craig instead agreed to a reported $24 million salary, and another $6 million for endorsements.

In addition, he could make much as another $30 million from his percentage of the box office profits, depending on if the film does as well globally as expected (Though, interestingly, he does not get a percentage of the the film’s net gross which would have meant a lot more money). Still the money that Craig has made from his Bond films makes him the highest paid Bond actor ever, beating out Pierce Brosman who made some $36 million from his four Bond films combined.

As for second place, that went to "The Peanuts Movie" as expected with $45 million. But the film is unusual in that it’s the first major studio animated film in a long time that was actually geared not towards kids, but for adults. Especially those on a nostalgia kick, who fondly remember the comic strip and the very popular and highly-rated "Peanuts" TV specials, some which became annual family viewing traditions.

"The Martian" finally fell down to third place after staying at No.1 for most of the past five weekends, except for one, and its total to date is nearly $200 million in the U.S. With almost $446 million worldwide, that makes it the second highest grossing film in director Ridley Scott’s career, with "Gladiator" earning $457 million worldwide – still his the highest grossing film. But "The Martian" is still going strong and will beat "Gladiator" considerably, with well over half a billion worldwide.

Meanwhile "Bridge of Spies," in fifth place, looks headed for a $70 million domestic gross; and "Goosebumps" in number 4 will likely earn a $75-80 million gross; while "The Intern" is slowly but surely becoming the the sleeper hit of the fall that no one saw coming.

As for the big flops of the recent past weeks such as "Our Brand is Crisis," "Pan," "Burnt" and "Crimson Peak," they continue to sink lower into oblivion..