Studio Briefing also points out that Solace also opened in France and Sweden on Friday, and that its combined takings across all three countries for the weekend was £23.8 ($38.6) million. Which has got to have Sony execs peeing their pants with delight.

Charles Gant at the Guardian’s Film Blog -- which is rapidly becoming my favorite place to keep up with the British movie scene -- is getting some detailed early box office numbers from I-dunno-where, but he also offers the kind of context best gotten from someone on the ground... like the fact that it rained in England on Satuday, which probably helped boost Bond’s number (and which I probably could have learned for myself, via weather news sites, if I’d thought to think of it), and that a midterm school holiday probably also helped boost High School Musical 3’s numbers through the midweek period (which I never would have thought to find out, if the kids were off from school).

The most notable thing from my perspective as regards to Solace is that this is the first film I can recall that opened with such a splash outside North America before it opened within North America. I’m constantly being peeved to learn that movies I’d really like to see aren’t going to be available to be for a while, and maybe not ever on a big screen -- like this one, for one. But those are little films with limited appeal, not movies that can be expected to be blockbusters. But a film with such pent-up demand across a wide swatch of moviegoers? That’s intriguing to me: I wonder what the purpose could be of keeping the movie from North American audiences for two weeks. I doubt it’ll have a big impact on North American in this instance, but it does appear as if pirated versions of the movie are already available on the Internet. As download speeds get faster and more people get Net savvy -- and as distribution of movies to theaters goes digital, eliminating the needs for expensive physical prints -- this will surely become a factor in getting big films a global release on or near the same day. We may never seen this kind of platforming release of a big movie again.

The film opens in a bunch more locales next week -- including much of Southeast Asia, the rest of Europe, the Middle East, and South America -- before opening in North America on November 14. And why the hell is it not opening in Japan until January 24? That’s bizarre.

If you want to see what the British critics are saying about the film, start here and here. I’m avoiding reading these reviews till I can see the film for myself -- which won’t happen till November 12 -- and can write my review.