In the new James Bond film “Quantum of Solace,” all the usual Bond elements are in place. There are many action scenes, an evil villain, a beautiful woman, 007 — played by British actor Daniel Craig — and 007’s wheels — played by British sports car Aston Martin.

“And if there was not an Aston Martin in ‘James Bond,’ the public would respond to that and say, ‘Where’s the Aston Martin?’ ” said Josh Hancock, an expert in movie cars.

Unlike in other Bond films, the $250,000 Aston Martin DBS in “Quantum” doesn’t show off any special gadgetry. However, it does show off its 12-cylinder performance in a high-speed chase.

“It does the deed,” said Hancock. “It’s like Daniel Craig. He’s a guy who looks like James Bond. This car is James Bond’s car.”

Bond driving Aston Martins onscreen goes way back to 1964, when Sean Connery turned the previously obscure DB5 into one of the most famous cars in the world.

That car also got a much bigger role than the Aston of today.

“The car was very much involved in the plot of the film. The fact that they put gadgets in the car that you see in the beginning … and then you see them play out one-by-one. I kind of miss that,” said Hancock.

To many fans, the James Bond franchise and Aston Martin really go together. “Quantum of Solace” marks the eighth time we’ve seen an Aston in a 007 film. But lately, the British brand has expanded its reach beyond just big-screen secret agents. The car earned small-screen credits with a desperate housewife. The elegant DB9 Volante was almost a fashion accessory for the stylish Gabrielle, played by Eva Longoria on ABC’s “Desperate Housewives.”

“With the Aston, they were doing poorly and then they did really well and he gave it to her as a gift. And it’s something that’s brought up in the script that she doesn’t want to let go,” said Hancock.

But for fans of Aston Martins and 007, the new DBS — or any other Aston — will always be associated with Bond … James Bond.

At a party many moons ago, when I was young and goofy and easily dazzled, somebody introduced me to that floppy-haired Adonis, that star of screen and boudoir, that God of All Delightful Englishmen, Hugh Grant. Not an especially magnificent swank, admittedly, given how many people he has been introduced to over his endless party-going years.

Yet this gargantuan event in my history, if not in his, coincided with a period when I had a gargantuan crush on him. Which is embarrassing. So, there we were, standing right opposite one another: Hugh, me (who adored him) and somebody we’ll call “the facilitator”.

The facilitator, way off camera, said something debonair along the lines of: “Daisy, do you know Hugh ? Hugh, this is Daisy . . .”

“Hello,” I said, remarkably calmly, which was brilliant for lots of reasons, but especially because, at that point, the only thing I wanted to say was: your nose looks a bit funny and how come the cameras never pick that up?

Sadly, he wasn’t so handsome in the flesh. There was something, I felt, not quite right about the angle at which his upper lip connected with the base of his nostrils. I avoided any mention of it of course, and launched instead - God only knows why - into a semi-hysterical dissertation on tennis balls.

The star of screen and boudoir responded with admirable politeness to my torrent of observations on the advantages of the unpressurised variety. When I sensed his concentration lapsing, I quickly, and with rising frenzy, presented him with the counter-argument: “On the other hand,” said I, “some of Tretorn’s unpressurised - I don’t know if you’re familiar with Tretorn tennis balls? - tend to kick up very high. Rather too high, some have even suggested . . . ” By then, his eyes had glazed over completely.

I retreated, shaking with shame at my own ineptitude and reeling with disappointment at his peculiar nostrils. Somehow, the combination of the two stripped away every remaining shimmer of glamour about him. At that instant, my love for him died.

What’s the moral? Not talking too much about tennis balls when trying to beguile movie stars at parties, obviously – although that’s hardly useful. But bear with me.

As anyone who has ever visited a film set will tell you (I have a husband who works in the film industry, so, since the dreaded Hugh encounter, it happens I’ve been to a few), they tend to be astonishingly depressing places, thick with the stink of everyone’s boredom. Hours pass, and the crew, in their regulation dirty jeans and cutting-edge trainers, do nothing – or so it seems – but stand about waiting for things to be adjusted.

Yet from all that humdrum inertia, the bods in their dirty jeans conjure magic. And, along the way, minor miracles occur – an ex-Latymer schoolboy, for example, not especially tall or anything much to look at, is transformed from a politish bloke with slightly peculiar nostrils into a living sex god. So, I have found the moral at last. Remember the nostrils and never despair. Things often look better on screen.

Take the Water Gardens, a 1960s housing development in west London that consists of four tower blocks. Bond fans might recognise it from an early scene in Quantum of Solace, in which Daniel Craig draws up outside a, er, 1960s housing development. I’m not sure why, or in what country he’s supposed to be, or what the hell is going on in the story, but anyway . . . Daniel goes into the building and enters a very nice flat - light and modern, elegant and highly desirable - where Judi Dench is doing something . . . I didn’t quite understand what, but whatever it is lends itself to a little wander on the balcony.

Freeze-frame that moment and you should, I’m pretty certain, actually see the fourth-floor flat that I visited. It’s in the neighbouring tower block - and how international and ritzy it looks.

“You could have watched the whole scene being filmed from this bedroom window,” the agent said as we gazed out from a flat as dowdy as a flat can be: tiny (just over 500 sq ft), with one bedroom, a windowless bathroom and a 9ft by 6ft kitchen – too small for a table.

The flat appears not to have been touched since the day it was first occupied, with swirly 1960s carpets, nylon net curtains, wood-look melamine kitchen surfaces and turquoise bathroom suite all still in place. There is a disconcerting red smear on the wall above the kitchen surfaces, which makes one wonder whether – never mind Bond, James Bond – it hasn’t been the scene of a real-life murder. Hope not. One way or another, the place is in dire need of a lick of paint.

On a more positive note, the sitting room is light and, at 20ft by 11ft, relatively large. And the flat is incredibly convenient. In the heart of Paddington, it’s a five-minute walk from Kensington Gardens and barely three minutes from the station. Add a 24-hour porter and a faint but genuine connection with, er, Daniel’n’Judi, and at £345,000, it seems almost a bargain.

Potential buyers who have seen it only in Quantum of Solace should remember that, like everything in life, it looks a whole lot better in the movies.

355 The Water Gardens, W2, £345,000

What is it?A small one-bedroom flat in a 1960s tower block, on a 77-year lease Where is it?In Paddington, west London, near the station Who is selling it?Cluttons; 020 7262 2226, www.cluttons.com

Not tempted? Here’s what £345,000 buys elsewhere

Cheshire
This two-bedroom flat in Wilmslow is 10 miles from Manchester city centre. It has two reception rooms, one bathroom, a cellar and a lawned garden. Andrew J Nowell & Co; 01625 585905, www.andrewjnowell.co.uk

Hampshire

Forge House is a Grade II-listed 18th-century farmhouse with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a patio garden and a garage. It is on Hayling Island, six miles from Portsmouth. Cubitt & West; 01243 377888, www.cubittandwest.co.uk

Northamptonshire

A four-bedroom, three-bathroom townhouse in Black Horse Court, a new development in Oundle, 10 miles from Peterborough. It has one reception room and a small garden. Woodford & Co; 01832 274732, www.woodfordandco.com

1. Quantum of Solace: £2.9 million (4th week; drops 44%)
2. Body of Lies: £.99 million (NEW)
3. My Best Friend’s Girl: £.91 million (NEW)
4. High School Musical 3: Senior Year: £.6 million (5th week; drops 38%)
5. Zack and Miri Make a Porno: £.45 million (2nd week; drops 44%)

Quantum of Solace is holding much stronger in the U.K. than it is in the U.S., where it fell 60 percent last weekend, only its second here. Then again, its U.K. competition wasn’t giving it much of a challenge this weekend. I like Body of Lies, but I’m in a minority here, and it opened poorly in the U.S. too. And Charles Gant at the Guardian’s Film Blog notes that the Dane Cook comedy at No. 3 was not even screened for critics in England, that’s how little faith the studio had in it.

The rest of the U.K. slate looks like it’s just treading water in Bond’s dangerous wake. Though Choke and Blindness made really terrible debuts in the U.K. this weekend, for two, earning, respectively, £59,330 in 45 cinemas and £38,609 in 50 cinemas. Bond might just get knocked off the top spot next weekend, when Changeling opens, though that probably depends on how big a draw Angelina Jolie is… and how big a draw is the prospect of seeing her in what could be another Oscar-nominated performance…

The weekend’s one bright spot: Burn After Reading has now become the Coen Brothers’ biggest British hit to date, with a cumulative take after six weeks of just under £7.5million. (That’s via Gant at the Guardian, too.)

Per-screen averages continue to be dominated by mainstream films — the opposite of what typically happens in North America — although again, like last week, slightly less than in other recent weeks:

1. Quantum of Solace: £5,474 at each of 527 cinemas
2. Dostana: £4,155 (43 cinemas)
3. Kisses: £3,092 (12 cinemas)
4. My Best Friend’s Girl: £2,574 (354 cinemas)
5. Yuvvraaj: £2,561 (44 cinemas)
6. Body of Lies: £2,524 (393 cinemas)
7. The Dark Knight: £2,477 (9 cinemas)

And the per-screens drop off pretty quickly after that point. I’m keeping an eye on these numbers to see whether this is the way the British box office usually looks, or whether I just happened to start looking at the numbers at a moment when the numbers were fluking.

But again with Dark Knight popping up out of nowhere (this happened a few weeks ago, too) — it was up almost 400 percent over last week! Weird.

The film series, which began in 1962 with “Dr. No,” was the only movie to open in wide release. “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa,” dropped to second place with sales of $36.1 million, box-office tracker Media By Numbers LLC said today in an e- mailed statement.

“Quantum of Solace” is the second Bond movie to star Daniel Craig as the British super spy and its sales highlight the popularity of edgier updates to aging movie franchises. “Quantum of Solace” surpassed 2006’s “Casino Royale,” which debuted with $40.8 million in receipts. “Quantum,” which has premiered abroad already, has made more than $231 million in worldwide sales, according to researcher Box Office Mojo LLC.

“The numbers are amazing,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers, in an interview. “‘Casino Royale’ ushered in a whole new era of Bond and ‘Quantum of Solace’ definitely capitalized on that. The re-imaging of the franchise has really worked.”

‘Madagascar’

In “Quantum,” Bond — played by Daniel Craig — seeks to unravel the conspiracy that led to the death of his love, Vesper Lynd, in “Casino Royale.” In both films, the producers did away with the campy one-liners featured in earlier Bond movies, along with the focus on gadgets designed to aid Bond on his missions.

Judi Dench returns in “Quantum” as British intelligence chief “M.” Gemma Arterton and Olga Kurylenko co-star.

The film was expected to have opening weekend sales of $65 million, the estimate of HSX.com, a Web site that forecasts movie performance. Steve Mason, a box-office analyst for FantasyMoguls.com, predicted $60 million and Gitesh Pandya, editor of Box Office Guru LLC, forecast about $57 million.

Second place’s “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa,” from DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. and Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures, has taken in $118 million since its debut.

‘Role Models’

The animated feature follows the antics of zoo animals, played by Ben Stiller, Chris Rock and David Schwimmer. In the first installment, they escaped from the zoo and ended up being sent to the island of Madagascar, where they came to terms with their new home. In the second film, they flee to the African continent in an attempt to return to New York.

“Role Models,” from General Electric Co.’s Universal Pictures, was third with $11.7 million. Sean William Scott and Paul Rudd play energy-drink salesmen who are sentenced to community service for trashing a company truck and must mentor a Medieval Times-obsessed teen and a foul-mouthed 10-year-old.

Walt Disney Co.’s “High School Musical 3,” dropped from third to fourth with $5.88 million in its fourth week of release. It’s the first feature film in a franchise that has generated more than $200 million in operating profit for Disney. The movie, made for $33 million, has taken in $84.4 million since it was released.

Director Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling” fell to fifth place from fourth with $4.25 million. The film, set in 1920s Los Angeles, stars Angelina Jolie as the mother of a child who is kidnapped. Her joy over the child’s return turns to horror as she realizes the boy isn’t her son. Amy Ryan and John Malkovich co-star.

Rounding out the top 10 in sixth through 10th place, respectively, were: Weinstein Co.’s “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” starring Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks, with $3.2 million; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. and Weinstein Co.’s Dimension Films’ “Soul Men” with $2.43 million; News Corp.’s “The Secret Life of Bees” with $2.4 million; Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.’s “Saw V,” with $1.79 million; and Fox Searchlight’s “The Haunting of Molly Hartley” with $1.65 million.

Receipts for the top 12 movies rose 54 percent to $143 million from a year earlier, Encino, California-based Media By Numbers said. For the year, box-office sales totaled $8.2 billion. Year-to-date attendance is down 3.5 percent.

The following table has figures provided by studios to Media By Numbers. The amounts are based on gross ticket sales from Nov. 21, yesterday and estimates for today.

Movie                 Rev.  Theaters  Wks   Avg./    Pct. Total
(mln)                 Theater   Chg. (mln)

1. Quantum Solace    $70.4   3,451   1  $20,400    --   $70.4
2. Madagascar 2       36.1   4,065   2    8,888    -43   118
3. Role Models        11.7   2,798   2    4,185    -39   38.1
4. High School 3      5.88   3,202   4    1,836    -36   84.4
5. Changeling         4.25   1,896   4    2,240    -41   27.6
6. Zack and Miri      3.2    2,210   3    1,448    -49   26.5
7. Soul Men           2.43   2,048   2    1,186    -55    9.4
8. Life of Bees       2.4    1,149   5    1,656    -22   33.6
9. Saw V              1.79   2,002   4      894    -56   55.4
10. Molly Hartley      1.65   1,587   3    1,039    -50   12.7

He’s ba-a-ck. Indeed, the man from MI6 — you know, the dapper gent with the penchant for fast cars, comely companions and fine-tuned martinis — is back with a vengeance. “Quantum of Solace,” the 22nd James Bond movie, hits U.S. movie screens on November 14, and fans of the franchise and armchair travelers alike have plenty to look forward to.

For Bond buffs, the movie represents a sequel to “Casino Royale,” the 2006 film that featured Daniel Craig as a younger, edgier 007 with, shall we say, “issues.” Those issues are still on display as our hero seeks to avenge the death of his girlfriend, Vesper Lynd, and thwart yet another arch villain’s plans for world domination. Already playing in Europe, the film has garnered mixed reviews so far.

For travelers, though, the film presents another four-star tour of exotic locales with scenes shot in Austria, Italy, Chile, Mexico and Panama. And while the last three were stand-ins for other places, the first two play themselves to glorious effect. Visit any of the three destinations below and you can enjoy some of the same experiences 007 does, although you may want to forgo the fisticuffs, car crashes and high-octane explosions.

Lake Garda, Italy
What’s a Bond film without a high-speed car chase (or seven)? From the first scene, “Quantum of Solace” cranks up the adrenaline with a wild ride along the Gardesana, the narrow highway that wraps around the upper end of Lake Garda in northern Italy.

Perched between the heights of the Dolomites and vertiginous cliffs, the road is a twisting two-laner that traverses hundreds of curves and tunnels. Bond, not surprisingly, takes it all at breakneck speed, but those with less pressing agendas would do better to slow down and savor the scenery.

Although it’s a year-round destination, the lake is best visited during the warmer months when it becomes a mecca for all sorts of sports and outdoor activities. Head to Riva del Garda for sailing, Torbole for windsurfing and Malcesine for hiking and mountain biking from the top of the Mount Baldo cable car.

Rental cars from AutoEurope.com are available in Brescia and Verona, starting at U.S. $380 per week — more, presumably, if you drop your car into the lake as one Bond stuntman did during filming this spring.

Siena, Italy
A few hours south of Lake Garda, Siena sits in the heart of Tuscany, a hilltop citadel of narrow streets, public squares and medieval buildings topped with red-tiled roofs. It’s the sort of place where you can spend hours at a plaza café, sipping coffee or Chianti and watching the passersby.

Unless, that is, you’re our boy Bond, in which case, you spend your time racing through the cisterns beneath the city (actually a set back in England) and running across those ocher rooftops. And you do so, of course, during the climax of the Siena event calendar, the centuries-old bareback horse race known as Il Palio.

Held annually on July 2 and August 16, the race is a hellbent-for-leather event in which 10 horses and riders, representing various city wards, thunder around the city’s Piazza del Campo to the cheers of several thousand spectators. The festivities actually begin three days before the two official race days, and staking a viewing spot early is highly recommended. For information on next year’s palio, visit the Siena Tourist Board.

Bregenz, Austria
Located on the shore of Lake Constance, in western Austria, Bregenz is probably best known as the home of the Bregenz Festival, an annual arts program that draws upwards of 200,000 visitors a year. The centerpiece of the festival is its opera program, with performances held on a large floating stage just off shore.

Of course, for 007, it’s all merely a set piece in which our hero interrupts the bad guys’ plotting and engages in yet another fight scene, this time during a performance of “Tosca.” Presumably, things will be a bit less boisterous during next summer’s festival (July 22–August 23) which will showcase Verdi’s “Aida.”

From there, Bond heads to … well, to say more would spoil the plot. Suffice it to say that there are more chases, more explosions and more general mayhem, which, when you think about it, suggests that you may not want to emulate 007 when you travel after all. I mean, really, the guy is not what you’d call a “low-impact” traveler, which may also explain why he’s always popping off to new places. Given the wreckage he often leaves behind, maybe no one ever invites him back.

Travel like 007? Sure, the locales are always exotic; the scenery, consistently stunning and the martinis, never anything but perfectly prepared. But unless you’ve got the resources of MI6 or MGM behind you, behaving like James Bond when you travel is probably a bad idea.

But whatever’s driving him — revenge, as his boss M (Judi Dench) suspects, or duty, as he insists — this Bond is looking forward, not back.

There’s no time to stop and think as the oleaginous Mr. White (Jesper Christensen) slips through his fingers once again and Bond is dispatched to Haiti, where he’s mistaken for an assassin or set up for a hit — or possibly both. It’s hard to say in the fusillade of rapid-fire editing.

It’s here he meets Camille (Olga Kurylenko), a Bolivian beauty with a burn mark on her back and a bone to pick with the man who put it there, and Mr. White’s friend Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric, making the most of not very much), an apparently philanthropic businessman busily carving up South America for “eco-parks” with the tacit approval of the U.S. government. (Intriguingly, the new-look Bond seems to be developing a skeptical political outlook that would come as a shock to Ian Fleming.)

Versatile if nothing else, “Finding Neverland” director Marc Forster keeps the action in high gear and the funny business to a minimum — a quantum of wit, you might say. Daniel Craig’s Bond isn’t one to crack a smile when he could be cracking heads. Roger Moore recently complained that his Bond was a lover, but Craig’s is a killer; there’s some truth in that, though Moore’s “lover” could better be described as “womanizer.”

Moore’s right, though. In “Quantum of Solace,” Bond beds only Strawberry Fields (Gemma Arterton), who comes to the proverbial sticky end in a rather slick nod to “Goldfinger,” but his body count approaches double figures.

Craig does show flashes of compassion, when he’s cradling a bullet-ridden Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini) in his arms — prior to dumping his corpse in the trash — or when he’s advising Camille on how to compensate for the adrenaline rush when she gets her shot at the evil despot who murdered her mom.

The harder edge makes sense in the circumstances, but the producers might want to be leery of going too much further down this road; Moore isn’t the only one who misses the old Bond’s lighter touch, his urbane savoir faire and way with a quip. These are the qualities that have defined him for nearly half a century.

The highpoint of the new film is a set piece at a performance of “Tosca” at an Austrian opera house, an oddly discreet meeting place for Greene’s shadowy consortium of businessmen and politicians, which Bond cleverly breaks up. It’s the one time where he shows brains as well as brawn, and three minutes of Puccini makes for welcome relief from David Arnold’s solid but over-stretched score.

The low point is a lengthy chase with the superspy stuck behind the joystick of an lugubrious old prop plane under fire from a fighter jet, a sequence we’ve seen countless times before, and to which Forster brings absolutely nothing new. The following scene in a desert sinkhole, obviously shot in a studio, is also pretty cheesy.

If Kurylenko is more than adequate in the Bond girl stakes, the moviemakers evidently mean to make Bond’s relationship with M the emotional linchpin of the series, and Dame Judi and Craig have a lovely rapport. She’s the only one who brings the sweetness out of him. Too bad there’s never time to savor it. A little less haste might not be a bad thing.

“Quantum of Solace” is efficient and effective, but it’s too businesslike to generate any real warmth.

Visit the official site at http://007.com to get your tickets for opening night of Quantum Of Solace.

Brit superspy James Bond is showing great traction at the U.K. box office. “Quantum of Solace,” distribbed by Sony, followed up on its whammo, record-breaking bow with a more-than solid soph sesh.

The high-octane actioner dipped a very respectable 40% to take $14.4 million at 541 screens for a running cume of $49.2 million. Bookers are delighted with the gritty hold, which suggests word-of-mouth is more positive than the reviews, which were mostly mixed. The huge opening and solid holdover biz gives “Solace” good momentum going into its Nov. 14 U.S. bow.

“Solace” utterly dominated U.K. cinema trade, with only one other pic — “High School Musical 3: Senior Year” — passing the $2 million mark. The Disney musical dropped 45% in its third frame for a strong $31.2 million running cume. None of the main openers — “Pride and Glory” (Entertainment), “W.” (Lionsgate U.K.) or “Easy Virtue” (Pathe) made much impact.

Underlying the enduring appeal of Ricky Gervais to Brit auds, “Ghost Town” is showing good traction. Supernatural pic, in which Gervais stars, placed third, dipping only 9% in its third frame for a running take of $7.1 million via Para.

At arthouse wickets, Steve McQueen’s “Hunger” is proving a good runner for Pathe. The hard-hitting pic about Bobby Sands and the Irish Republican’s dirty protest fell only 10% in its second weekend to $190,741 at 62. The 10-day cume stands at $575,893.

In Germany, “Quantum of Solace” soared to the top of the charts, raking in the biggest opening take so far this year as well as the best ever for a Bond film at Teuton wickets.

The massive success of “Casino Royale,” broad TV coverage of the film, including making-of reports and interviews with crew and cast, the huge popularity of Daniel Craig and the fact that this is the first 007 film made by a German-speaking director all helped generate a monster opening take of $15 million from 814.

As elsewhere, “Quantum” has met with mixed reviews in Germany.

Daily newspaper Leipziger Volkszeitung decried the pic for putting style over substance, saying Bond has become more artificial: “Marc Forster has simply taken a handful of attractive locations and shot a preposterous C-movie story.”

By contrast, popular broadsheet Bild, while calling “Solace” “the saddest Bond ever,” wrote: “When you’ve left the cinema, you’ve forgotten all of the past Bonds. Proto-007 Sean Connery finally has his progeny! Daniel Craig is 00-super.”

Following in a distant second, “HSM3″ added $1.75 million in its third frame to a running cume of $13 million.

In third, surprise French hit “Welcome to the Sticks” took in $974,343 toward a $2.5 million total.

Local fantasy pics “Die Geschichte vom Brandner Kaspar” and “Krabat” held on to the fourth and fifth slots, with total cumes reaching $5.7 million and $8.6 million, respectively.

In Italy, “Solace” surpassed exhib expectations by a quantum, scoring $3.9 million from 467 in a flat frame.

The 007 saga’s 22nd installment pulled an $8,270 per-screen average, considered killer in a land that has never been that fond of Bond.

Italy’s second-biggest opener, Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger starrer “The Burning Plain,” performed passably with $676,000 off 216 via Medusa for the directorial debut of the directorial debut of “Babel”-scribe Guillermo Arriaga.

Medusa has been doing brisk biz with Gallic laffer “Welcome to the Sticks,” which dropped just 37% in its second frame for $826,000 from 312 for a $2.5 million running cume.

The other notable holdover is “HSM3,” which slid 51% to $2.6 million from 487 in its sophomore sesh for a $9 million Italo cume to date.

Meanwhile, “Un Gioco da ragazze” (Girl’s Play), local helmer Matteo Rovere’s debut, played poorly pulling just $318,000 from 173 via 01 Distribuzione, while gory Gallic chiller “Frontier(s)” scared up slightly better biz with $317,000 off 112 via Moviemax.

Tyke-targeted Teutonic toonpic “The Three Robbers,” by Hayo Frietag, tanked big time totaling a mere $39,739 from 74 via BIM Distribuzione.

Down a respectable 42% in its second frame, “Solace” is also a runaway hit in Gaul. With nearly 2.5 million admissions in its first 10 days, it’s cumed $18.6 million on 787 for Sony and looks likely to be among the top 10 performers of 2008.

“Body of Lies” had a solid, if not eye-popping bow for Warners. The spy thriller took in $2.3 million on 428 in its opening five days.

Off 50% on the week in its third frame, “Public Enemy Number One, Part 1″ is proving a solid earner for Pathe. The biopic of infamous criminal Jacques Mesrine has cumed almost $12.1 million on 491, with part two opening Nov. 19.

For better or worse commercially, “Saw V” has evaded most of the censorship-centered hoo-hah that surrounded earlier offerings from the carnage-laden franchise in Gaul. It earned $1.8 million on 181 for Metropolitan.

With no “Solace” yet at Spanish cinemas, Warner’s “Body of Lies” opened top with $2.3 million with a meaty screen average of $7,759. In line with industry expectations, “Body of Lies” easily out-muscled other openers, which bowed on far fewer prints.

“HSM3″ slumped a sizable 51%, though it has already cumed $9.8 million after three weekends.

Second-best opener was European Dreams Factory’s “Bella,” which came in at ninth. Despite a generally bad response from critics, “Bella” collected $366,546 and scored the second best print-average of the week; $3,755. “There’s more to come from ‘Bella’ — it promises to show legs,” forecast one booker.

Ahead of its wide Euro release, Par’s “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” continues to do gangbusters biz in Russia, where it has bagged $35.8 million after two weeks. The toon opened successfully in Hungary this weekend, pulling $656,000 — the second-highest opening take for a toon in that market.

Additional reporting by Ed Meza (Germany), David Hayhurst (France), Nick Vivarelli (Italy) and Emilio Mayorga (Spain).

Underlining Bond’s global popularity, Sony-MGM’s Bond pic averaged a socko $10,790 per location. It’s cumed an eye-popping $160.3 million internationally in its first 10 days even though it still hasn’t opened in Australia, Japan, Mexico and Spain.

“Solace,” which launched last weekend in the U.K., France and Sweden, took in more than triple the combined foreign take for the next four entries — “High School Musical 3,” “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa,” “Body of Lies” and “Saw V.”

“Solace” pulled in the second largest international weekend in 2008, trailing only the $146.6 million debut of “Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” It topped the bows of “Casino Royale” — top foreign grosser among Bondpics at $429 million — in each of its 57 new markets, with the openings in 13 of those markets more than doubling the “Casino” launches.

“Solace” also posted the top openings ever for Switzerland at $3.8 million, Finland at $1.7 million and the United Arab Emirates at $1 million along with Nigeria, Romania and Slovenia. Its beefy $9.1 million Chinese debut represented the second largest ever for a non-Chinese pic, and its $3.7 million Indian launch was the second-best among Hollywood entries.

The success of “Solace” — with a plot that picks up where “Casino Royale” left off — underscores the strong appetite among international moviegoers for franchises and actioners. Mark Zucker, who heads Sony’s international distribution, said the pic has far outperformed internal forecasts and has shown unexpectedly strong traction among teens.

Brit biz generated the top “Solace” number, declining 40% from its record-setting debut to $15.1 million for a 10-day cume of $50.3 million. Germany’s $15 million led the launches, followed by Russia and China with $9.1 million each, South Korea with $4.5 million, Italy with $4.3, Switzerland with $3.8 million, India with $3.5 million, Denmark with $2.9 million, Norway with $2.3, Holland with $2.2 million and Austria with $2.1 million.

The second French frame showed solid traction, declining 46% to $5.7 million for a 10-day cume of $20.5 million, while Sweden slid 42% to $1.4 million.

“Solace,” which opens next weekend in Mexico, should dominate the foreign box office for several more frames with the “Madagascar” sequel, “Bolt” and “Twilight” all seeing gradual release patterns. Fox’s “The Day the Earth Stood Still” will go day and date in most foreign markets during the second weekend of December.

Disney’s “High School Musical 3″ led the rest of the pack during the frame with $13.6 million at 4,748 in 32 markets to boost its foreign cume to $109.4 million — the fifth Mouse House pic to top the $100 million mark overseas in 2008 after “Wall-E” at $262 million, “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,” “National Treasure 2″ and “Enchanted.”

Par’s “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” continued to shine, with $9.2 million at 770 in only four markets to push its foreign cume to $40.2 million — $35.8 million of that from two weeks in Russia. Its $656,000 Hungarian launch notched the second-highest opening for a toon in that market.

In the few markets without “Quantum of Solace,” pics posted moderate results. Spain saw the best numbers with a $2.1 million launch of Warner’s “Body of Lies,” pushing the pic’s foreign cume to $16.4 million from 13 international territories while still early in its foreign run.

The soph sesh of “High School Musical 3″ led in Mexico with $1 million. Fox’s Japanese launch of “X-Files: I Want to Believe” topped that chart, also with $1 million. And in Australia, the debut of Warner’s “Nights in Rodanthe” finished first with $960,000, beating the fourth frame of “Burn After Reading.”

Hornby posted on Friday a 33 percent drop in half-year profit, hitting its shares, but had high hopes the release of its new James Bond Scalextric model cars would boost Christmas sales.

Hornby said it made pretax profit of 1.8 million pounds in the six months to September 30, down from 2.7 million pounds in the same period last year.

The group blamed tough trading conditions and a 1.3 million-pound increase in overheads following its recent purchase of model car maker Corgi.

“The retail markets are undoubtedly more challenging. However the hobby sector has distinctive defensive characteristics, which will help us in a more difficult economic environment,” said Frank Martin, Hornby’s chief executive.

At 1045 GMT, Hornby shares were down 7.2 percent at 122 pence, valuing the firm at about 46 million pounds.

Brokerage WH Ireland said full-year profit forecasts of about 8 million pounds now looked “overly optimistic.”

“Accordingly, we expect to see downgrades put through and we would recommend avoiding the shares at present,” it said.

According to industry analysts, Europe’s toymakers should buck the economic downturn better than many other retailers.

“Typically if you look at history, the toy industry has weathered the recessions and financial pressures very well in the past, ” said Bryan Ellis, chairman of Toy Industries Europe earlier this week.

BOND CARS FOR CHRISTMAS

Hornby hopes to drive its Christmas sales with a set of James Bond Scalextric cars, including the Aston Martin DBS and Alfa Romeo 159 as seen in the latest film in the long-running franchise, ‘Quantum of Solace’.

“The strength of the Bond franchise and the Scalextric brand name should override difficult economic conditions,” said Paul Chandler, Scalextric marketing manager.

The new micro Scalextric 007 racing set, on sale from November 10 globally, has already registered pre order-sales of around 20,000, with the model price starting at 40 pounds.

Hornby traces its roots back to 1907 when founder Frank Hornby established Meccano Ltd to launch his metal model building kits for children. Hornby trains were introduced in 1920.

The firm bought Corgi Classics, one of the world’s oldest makers of collectible die cast models whose toys included the Batmobile, from Corgi International Ltd for 8.3 million pounds in May 2008.