Casino Royale (top) and Quantum of Solace

He’s back. And he is ready to shake, rather than stir, the box office.

Two years after the super successful Casino Royale, Daniel Craig’s James Bond is ready for his next assignment. Reason enough for Quantum of Solace to be the hottest release this Friday. With 43 multiplex shows every day, the 22nd 007 flick is easily one of the biggest English-language film releases to have hit Calcutta.

When Daniel became Bond in November 2006, Calcutta with two less multiplexes had 26 shows on the first Friday. The average of six daily shows per property for the first weekend of Casino Royale has gone up to seven for Quantum of Solace. “The buzz around the film has been strong right from the day it premiered in London on October 29 and we are going really big with it,” said Captain Virendra Marya, the regional director (east) of INOX, which has three plexes in town.

The mood in the camp of Sony Pictures India, the countrywide distributor of the film, is buoyant. Speaking from the Mumbai premiere of the film at PVR Juhu, marketing head Bhavesh Thakkar said on Thursday evening: “We are expecting a big opening after all the good reviews coming in.”

It won’t be easy for Quantum of Solace to match the box-office results of Casino Royale, which was the second largest English film grosser in India (around Rs 40 crore) after Titanic.

This weekend, Bond gets a virtual walkover from Bollywood with Sanjay Dutt’s EMI being the only new release at the plexes. But Quantum of Solace will find a worthy foe in Karan Johar’s Dostana, next Friday. With Subhash Ghai’s Yuvvraaj arriving on November 21, the world’s favourite spy may find it difficult to last six weeks at the box office like he had in the winter of ’06.

Exhibitor-distributor Arijit Dutta, a Bond freak himself, adds another rider: “The ground marketing hasn’t been enough for a film as big as this. Quantum of Solace has to be really good to pull through.”

By the end of this weekend we shall know.