James Bond gave the box office its second injection of receipts following the big opening of MADAGASCAR 2 the previous weekend. Now it appears we have an unexpected third cash injection from a new opener that has outdone its predecessors.

TWILIGHT, a romance-vampire flick (yes, you read that right), earned an estimated 35.7 million on Friday alone, a mammoth figure considering the reported budget is only 37 million. This is a big hit and will likely create a massive opening weekend and be a hugely profitable release.

Slipping in to second, or tumbling, is QUANTUM OF SOLACE. After a breakout last weekend, the film lost a good chunk of its audience, earning only an estimated 8.75 million on its second Friday. That equates to an approximate 67% loss of audience. This film was not as widely regarded as CASINO ROYALE, and may account for its drop in ticket sales. This hardly matters as the foreign gross has already put this film in to the black but it may have to work hard to match its budget figure in the U.S.

BOLT opens in third position with an estimated 7.1 million. The latest CG animated flick did okay given its low profile and will likely turn in to a decent earner for Disney.

MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA is now losing a little steam, but not much. In its third Friday it earned an estimated 3.7 million.

The estimates for the remaining films are as follows:

ROLE MODELS - 2.4M
CHANGELING - 0.7M
HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 - 0.5M
ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO - 0.5M
THE BOY IN STRIPED PAJAMAS - 0.4M
THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES - 0.3M

The North American box office in total took in 60.3 million for the whole of Friday 21st November 2008.