According to early Friday returns, Spectre is on course to earn $28 million-$30 million for the day and $75 million-$80 million for the weekend from 3,972 theaters, the widest release of any Bond film.

The Peanuts Movie, hoping to birth a new family film franchise, is also scoring with a $13 million-$14 Friday and projected weekend take of $50 million from 3,890 locations. The movie boasts strong reviews and an A CinemaScore from moviegoers.

Spectre — James Bond's 24th trip to theaters — kicked off at 7 p.m. Thursday night with $5.25 million, ahead of the $4.6 million grossed by Skyfall (2012) in midnight grosses. Skyfall went on to earn $88.4 million for the weekend, a series best. Friday's audience gave Spectre an A- CinemaScore, although the tentpole has received the worst reviews of any of the four Bond movies Daniel Craig has starred in.

Sony, MGM and Eon Productions, who partnered on Spectre, note it faces more competition than Skyfall, which had the weekend to itself in terms of new releases.

Skyfall's Sam Mendes returned to direct Spectre, which follows 007 as he travels the globe attempting to uncover a sinister organization. Christoph Waltz joins as the villain, while Lea Seydoux and Monica Bellucci star as the new Bond girls.

The tentpole cost at least $250 million to produce after incentives and rebates, so will need to do sizeable business at the global box office, or $900 million-plus by some estimates. Spectre is already breaking records in the U.K., where it earned $63.8 million in its first seven days, the largest opening of all time and beating Skyfall, which became the first Bond movie to cross $1 billion at the worldwide box office with $1.1 billion in global ticket sales.