Bond Dominates!

It wasn’t even close.

007 James Bond: Quantum of Solace, the follow up to Daniel Craig’s debut as Bond, 2006′s Casino Royale, opened appropriately large this weekend, taking in an estimated $70.4 million in the US alone, with an additional $251 million worldwide to date, accounting for a total of $322 million worldwide, against a production budget of $200 million.

The PG-13 rating helped.

Coming in second was Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa, which added $36.1 million in its second weekend, making its 10-day take $118 million against a $150 million budget for the animated feature. Third was role models with $11.7 million, and then there was a big dropoff as High School Musical 3: Senior Year added $5.8 million and Changeling $4.2 million to round out the top five films in weak fashion.

Perhaps it’s the comfort of home theater seating that is keeping crowds away from the box office, or perhaps it’s just not holiday season quite yet.

Things are expected to pick up a bit next weekend as Bolt will add more PG kids fare to the mix, while Twilight will add some vampire romance to the last pre-Thanksgiving box office weekend of the year.

Where’s Harry Potter when you need him?