WilliamM

The take away from this weekend’s box-office results: Do not cross a dame. Reviving a bejeweled cast that includes Maggie Smith’s haughty Dowager Countess, the film “Downton Abbey” opened to around $31 million in domestic ticket sales this weekend, beating out the Brad Pitt vehicle “Ad Astra” and “Rambo: Last Blood” for top place. The figures vastly exceeded predictions for “Downton” — its distributor, Focus Features, had expected the opening to bring in closer to $20 million.