By Sarah Sluis
Quantum of Solace (3,451 screens) releases today to a wide-open market. Without any competition, the film will likely exceed all previous Bond openings (2002's Die Another Day opened to $47 million). 
Forecasters have the film tracking in the $50-$60 million range, slightly below Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa's performance last week.
Released two weeks ago in Europe, Quantum of Solace has already earned $160 million overseas, but critical reception has been mixed. The film adjusts the proportions of action, glamour, sex, gadgets, and wit. While the Bond package remains intact, those who look to the movie for the latter four elements might come out disappointed, as the lean film focuses primarily on the action. Without the twists and ribald humor and narcissistic concern for the cleanliness of his evening wear, Bond looks more like Bourne, an opinion shared by numerous critics and the FJI staff.
Of note, two American CIA agents aid and do business with the story's main villain. Bond films usually choose generic but safe villains--they used Russia as the Cold War villain even after the idea of Russia as an enemy was a bit stale (explained, in part, because they kept drawing on Ian Fleming's dated source material). As far as I can tell, this marks the first time that a Bond film portrays a United States government official as a villain. A product of the political leanings of screenwriter Paul Haggis, as well as the negative impression overseas of a Bush-led United States, the rather mild depiction of Americans-as-villains did not offend me, but serves as a warning of the world's casual distrust of America.
Holdovers Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Role Models, HSM3: Senior Year and Changeling will continue to rack up numbers at the box office, and, with so few debuting films, will probably drop less than 50% from last week.
The indie market is crowded this week, but the standout is Slumdog Millionaire (10 screens), which released Wednesday (related blog post here) and has already earned $3,000 per screen, a hefty figure for a mid-week release.
FJI publishes reviews of even the smallest indie releases, so, if the thought of Bond makes you run from the multiplex, click here for a round-up of all recent specialty releases.
Quantum of Solace is entertaining at least... a lot of high quality visuals, but the movie as a whole could stand to lose six or seven fewer chase scenes
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