Spectre breaks box office records in first week of release

The latest chapter in the James Bond series opened in the UK and five other European territories last week, leaving a trail of smashed box office records in its wake. Over the course of seven days Spectre raked in $80.4 million, with $63.8 million of that haul solely from UK receipts.

The hefty sum Bond netted from UK audiences saw the film setting a new record for movies released on a Monday, as opposed to the normal Friday. 007's £41.7 million haul beats the £23.8 million Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban nabbed over its seven-day opening in 2004.

Spectre also stole the title of 'biggest opening day' movie in the UK by taking in £6.3 million by Tuesday - its second day of release - ousting the previous Bond outing, Skyfall. Elsewhere across Europe major records were broken in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway, where the movie outperformed its predecessor by roughly 30 percent.

With Spectre now preparing to open to another 40 markets worldwide on November 6, expect plenty more records to be broken. There's no question that it will top Skyfall's takings - but will it conquer Jurassic World, the year's biggest movie so far?

Gem Seddon

Gem Seddon is GamesRadar+'s west coast Entertainment News Reporter, working to keep all of you updated on all of the latest and greatest movies and shows on streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Outside of entertainment journalism, Gem can frequently be found writing about the alternative health and wellness industry, and obsessing over all things Aliens and Terminator on Twitter.