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The Craig films are very popular in Britain, but CR was no more UK centric than any other Bond film that I can recall. The same applied to QoS, and both were very popular in their respective year of release in the UK.
The Craig films are more European centric (at least imho) in their plotting, casting (especially of relative unknowns stateside), somewhat toned down action (except perhaps for QoS) and most tellingly, in their more restrained humour. That may account for their increased popularity in the UK, but I'm speculating.
The Brosnan films were relatively more popular (as a % of total box office gross) in the US, and that is an interesting fact. More so than the Moore and Dalton films, and more so than the Craig films. Only Connery surpassed his relative popularity in the US.
It's in the pure entertainment factor of the films.
Yes I do recall SF :) I think its obvious at this point that was an outlier, boosted by a combo of Olympics hype, Adele, 50th anniversary marketing etc, BUT the fact that it was genuinely well received by critics and audiences alike pushed it over the top for a huge box office result. Otherwise it would have fizzled out at say...250 million, not 300+. Compared to DAD which had a lot of 40th anniversary hype, leading to an impressive opening weekend...but over the long run it only just nudged past TND in US ticket sales. Aside from Skyfall, Broz's films do better on average than DC's in the US.
It wasn't necessarily Brit-centric geographically speaking, but CR brought a British sensibility back to the series which had gone too Hollywood. Bond was no longer saying things like "station break" and "Yo, Wade", the wit became drier and subtler instead of "Read this, bitch", and there was no OTT driving invisible Aston Martins through ice castles being melted by a space laser, and they deliberately avoided big name Halle Berry style casting, hence the lower opening weekend than DAD (but word of its quality got out and it succeeded).
Do you have an opinion on why this is?
It's difficult to tell. The most likely answer is that the films were more in tune with what the American public was looking for in the 90's from Bond.
The films were certainly more generic to me, but the vast majority of the American public seemed to welcome this, and associated Bond at the time with tropes (cars, watches, gadgets, sleeping about, smart alec remarks, explosions etc. etc.). Basically a magnification of cliches that began with GF (the breakout iconic Bond film in the US) and carried on during the Moore era, but this time taken to a whole new level of absurdity.
In a way, the 90's Bond films were a personification of that somewhat uncreative decade, relatively speaking at least imho. A greatest hits era for a compilation decade. I remember even a few years ago there were complaints that there were not enough gadgets in the Craig films.
It's interesting to note that these days most US folks also recognize GE to be Brosnan's best, even though some of the other films were very popular back then - so it likely was a phase.
I agree. Look at the Bourne Ultimatum scene at Waterloo Station is one of the most tense and exciting scenes in any action movie. It didn't need any special effects, any big explosions, any set construction. It was brilliant without spending a fortune. Then look at the scene when Bond meets Vesper on the train in Casino Royale. It was witty and really let us see Bond's personality - these are standout scenes that need good writing and direction.
No, we don't think that way.
The Craig films until SP have garnered greater critical and commercial success than the Brosnan films in the US.
SW7 is pretty much a film of unknowns and we're watching that.
The Brits here analyzing the US often have no clue and are too often blindly biased.
If we suck so bad then for heaven's sake please don't bother seeing SW7.
But all this blaming of them is ridiculous too.
Er...I'm American.
That's as good an explanation as any other. Especially when you consider the most absurd one of all (DAD) had the highest US box office. I accept that there's a good reason for QOS' relatively low take, but still puzzled that SP and especially CR can't match TND and DAD. (And what was so different or worse about TWINE that that made $20 million less?!)
You mean one figure is a too simplistic way to judge a whole country's population ?
But.. but.. does it mean box office "science" is only a way to put "facts" on one's prejudice ? Ouch.
On the other hand it explains why no one manages to predict box office ! It's a science where a 50% margin error is called "good prediction" :)
For instance, you can read that SW7 did in France about 30% less than SP. I won't correct because I've already tried twice, but you can imagine that this statistic is quite weird actually.
I apologize.
There have been several spy related films this year, including some spoofs that have been well received.
Most spy oriented films have not lit the US box office alight this year (including the excellent MI-RN, which underperformed in non-inflation terms compared to MI-GP), with the one exception being Kingsman. This film had the benefit of being released first / early and had a very long run in North American theatres, which it benefited from ($128m US gross) at a time when there weren't too many comparable releases. So spy fatigue perhaps had an effect on SP's relative performance, and also of other 'formulaic' spy films.
I am curious to see how London Has Fallen performs next year, since it will be coming out in the spring before a lot of other competition hits.
RE: TWINE - the one thing that was different compared to TND & DAD (whatever you may think of it) was that the action was terribly lacklustre, tacked on, and uninvolved. Some (including myself) have said the same of SP, except for the train fight.
CR was a different case, because no one knew who Craig was in the US at that time. It was a film that established him. If you see how CR performed at the US box office over its run, it had absolutely incredible legs compared to its opening weekend and was doing phenomenal $1m/day business much later in its run which was very impressive, so the film was well received ultimately and established DC as Bond in the US.
Regarding SP vs. DAD/TND, one has to consider the crowded release schedule and the removal of premium theatres. Sure, the earlier films didn't have IMAX benefits, nor did they have such a large theatre count at the start, but they also didn't have such a crowded release schedule.
Bottom line though is that Brosnan was well received in the US generally during his run. He established himself as a semi-A lister during that period.
No problem.
I sometimes write things on forum posts, then think, oops, maybe i shouldn't of written that.......but that's just life on the internet.
Anyway, wouldn't this forum be boring if we all agreed on things?
:)
They're usually spot on estimates that go off of tickets already sold, audience attendance throughout the weekend, etc. It's possible that it'll fluctuate by tomorrow morning once the finalized weekend B.O. is released.
SP is now on an estimated $193.9 mil in North America after this weekend.
Needless to say the film took quite a bit of a hit in face of the SW onslaught.
Hopefully, the film can still reach the $200 mil mark, by the end of its run.
Yes, you are correct, the figures given out now are actually estimates, i mean its still early evening in the UK here, so for North America, they are still 5 hours behind us, and that is just for the Eastern side of that continent.
The true, actual figures for the weekends take, are announced sometime late on Monday, and they are normally a bit lower than the estimated total given by the studios.
Yep, that is not bad, and it does look like SP, will reach and pass $850 mil worldwide during the Xmas hols.