1. Skyfall (Global box-office to date: $1,032,966,261)
This may be the most obvious entry on this list, but there are things about this movie which, I feel, need to be said in order to emphasize just how amazing an achievement this global gross really is.
The first and most obvious thing that need be said about this movie is that James Bond is, at 50 years, the world oldest's film franchise. People who say the whole concept of the film franchise began with Star Wars, should bear in mind that by the time the first Star Wars came out in May of 1977, there had already been nine James Bond movies starring three different actors as Bond. Sure, Star Wars remains the granddaddy of film-related merchandise and that sort of thing, but James Bond was having sequels before any other property in the film industry. At 23 movies over half a century, audiences around the world have, on the average, been treated to a Bond movie every other year, though of course in real time there have been considerable lulls between some of the later movies. There is not a movie property in existence that can claim this sort of durability. This is a series that has even survived the turbulent political events that spawned the books from which it was adapted.
The second reason this figure is really an outstanding achievement is that this movie was very nearly consigned to oblivion when the studio releasing it, MGM, ran into serious bankruptcy issues a few years back that, had it not been for quick thinking and tenacity of a number of people, could have buried this project for years, if not for good. In short, this is the sort of movie that came close to never even existing, so to go from development limbo to a billion dollars is something definitely worth applauding.
The final thing that makes this film's worldwide take such a landmark achievement is how it has completely shattered what had long seemed to be a glass ceiling for this film franchise.
James Bond was, in his early days, no stranger to towering box-office grosses. Adjusted for inflation, the grosses of two out of the first four Bond movies, Goldfinger and Thunderball, in the United States alone would, according to boxofficemojo.com, amount to half a billion dollars today, without even factoring the undoubtedly high grosses in Bond's native England and the rest of the world. From late sixties and all the way to the end of the 80s, though, Bond seemed to suffer from diminishing returns, as none of his films after those two seemed capable of cracking the magic "century club" or films that would gross $100 million or more, with one notable exception being the 1979 film Moonraker which made quite a bit of money, specifically $210 million around the world in 1979 currency. Still, this was the exception and not the rule.
That changed with the 1995 hit Goldeneye which was notable for being the first movie to feature Irish actor Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. Goldeneye made $106 million at the North American box office (U.S. and Canada) and over $240 million in the rest of the world, announcing quite emphatically that the franchise was far from being a spent force. Brosnan went on to star in three more hit Bond movies, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough, and Die Another Day, each movie grossing more than the last, with DAD setting what was, at the time, the benchmark for Bond's global box-office with over $432 million.
The upward trend continued when the series was rebooted in 2006 with Daniel Craig as 007, with Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace both earning well over half a billion dollars at the global box office.
Still, it was notable that James Bond movies seemed to have a ceiling of sorts, at least at the North American box-office. The highest grossing film in the series as of 2008, Quantum of Solace, could only muster $167 million (unadjusted), which stood in contrast to the heights scaled by other spy movie franchises, like the Mission Impossible series, and the Bourne films, both of which had at least one entry crack the coveted $200 million mark in North America. Even two of the spy spoof Austin Powers movies had managed to gross over $200 million each. James Bond didn't even seem to be in their league, despite the fact that he was basically the granddaddy of all movie spies. Of course, in the rest of the world, it was still a different story, but still, given the fact that spy movies were popular in North America I for one couldn't help but wonder why James Bond was not among the more popular franchises.
Skyfall changed all of that, shattering the proverbial glass ceiling and outgrossing just about every spy movie ever made, with a projected final North American gross well over $300 million (it's currently at $299,627,928, with plenty of juice left) and a rest-of-the-world gross of around $733,500,000, a figure which includes around $164,000,000 from Bond's native Britain. In terms of grosses, it has blown away its rival spy franchises in both North America and just about everywhere else in the world. Its eventual $300+ million North American gross, even in 2012 dollars, is, as it were, "real" money; it's the kind of money usually reserved for giant robots, some superheroes, hobbits, boy wizards and James Cameron. Even among the wildly popular Twilight movies, only one has grossed $300 million, and only just. For a 50-year-old film franchise about an aging spy to pull in that kind of money is nothing short of extraordinary.
The $700+ global gross is another kettle of fish altogether; in the history of Hollywood, only six other movies have earned more than Skyfall at the global box-office, and four of them benefited from 3-D surcharges. This year, only The Avengers has made more money at the global box-office than Skyfall so far, and again, that benefited from a significant 3-D boost. Notably, at the global box-office, Skyfall handily defeated The Dark Knight Rises. This movie is clearly in a league of its own, and it bodes extremely well for health of the franchise for years to come.
Years ago James Bond was too-often described as a Cold-War relic, but currently, to a whole new generation of audiences, he is clearly so much more.
Many thanks to the folks at boxofficemojo.com for the figures cited here.
No comments:
Post a Comment