For months, American moviegoers have either been going big or staying home.

And if they keep behaving that way, 2015 may set new marks for both hits and misses — while leaving a hole in the middle, where Oscars are typically born.

“Spectre,” the latest James Bond thriller, took in about $73 million in ticket sales at domestic theaters over the weekend, giving Hollywood one of its biggest openings of the year, even though sales were down sharply from those for “Skyfall,” the previous Bond movie. “Spectre,” the most expensive 007 installment ever, costing Sony Pictures Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Eon Productions roughly $400 million to make and market, has taken in an additional $223 million overseas, breaking records.

The performance of “Spectre” in North America, along with very strong opening results for “The Peanuts Movie,” which collected about $45 million for 20th Century Fox, ended a funk that included October ticket sales dropping about 44 percent from a year ago, to $493.7 million, according to the database Box Office Mojo. But it also highlighted the unevenness in a year when September sales had just risen nearly 49 percent, to $677.5 million.

September was driven by “Hotel Transylvania 2,” from Sony. October belonged to “The Martian,” from Fox.