The Peanuts Movie had a strong showing at the box office this weekend, raking in $45 million, behind only the newest James Bond movie, Spectre, with $73 million. Although Spectre is the second highest grossing Bond movie of all time, its performance was slightly underwhelming in the wake of it’s predecessor, Skyfall’s $88.4 million opening. Although the two films drew very different types of audiences on the whole, it can be suspected that The Peanuts Movie’s strong opening stole some of Spectre’s thunder. This is an issue that the largely unchallenged Skyfall didn’t need to deal with.

Although The Peanuts Movie’s performance doesn’t quite measure up to 2015’s top animated box office smashers (namely Minons and Inside Out), it was far from a disappointment. The film did well with audiences and critics alike, garnering an 86% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, along with a coveted “A” grade in CinemaScore theater exit polls. The newest Peanuts installment worked not only on a nostalgic level, largely succeeding in gaining the favor of adults who grew up with the Peanuts specials and comics but also in introducing a new generation to the world of Charlie Brown. According to Variety, 38% of the Blue Sky film’s audience was under the age of 18. Good box office performance combined with solid word of mouth signaled by the CinemaScore rating shows that Peanuts could be franchise material for Blue Sky Studios. The box office showing of the Peanuts gang in the coming weeks will determine whether we’ll be seeing more of them in their brave new CG form.

Have you seen the The Peanuts Movie yet? Are you interested in more Peanuts movies?

Edited by: Kelly Conley