'Skyfall' smashes opening weekend records in Australia

They had to wait longer than most, but James Bond fans in Australia have packed cinemas across the country as "Skyfall" finally opened this weekend.

The 23rd 007 adventure raked in an astonishing $12.304m on 595 screens in its first weekend Down Under, which smashes the previous record of $7.954m held by "Quantum of Solace".

It is also the biggest opening weekend of all time for Sony Pictures Releasing Australia.

Last time around, "Quantum" made $20.6m in Australia, but "Casino Royale" made more: $25.4m despite a smaller opening weekend of $5.408m in 2006.

"Skyfall"s opening weekend haul has placed it in the top 20 openings of all time, ahead of "Avatar" ($11.99m) and "Twilight Breaking Dawn – Part 1" ($12.1m).

However it narrowly failed to break through the all-time Australian opening records set by "The Avengers" ($13.28m) and "Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2" ($12.49m) - which bowed a week before "Skyfall", the opposite of the USA release schedule.

It is expected that "Skyfall" will make over $30m in Australia.

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