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I fully agree. In fact, correct me if I'm wrong, but it is DC that has put Bond back firmly on the map in the UK, starting with the amazing success of CR in 2006. He's made it into a UK phenomenon again it seems.That's the way it should be imho.
Brosnan was indeed a little too American centric in my view, and so were the films (even some of the terminology that started to pervade them). I thought that was misguided.
I lived in the UK during the Moore/Dalton years, but not during the Brosnan years. Was he looked at positively during his run in the UK? Were you chaps passionate about him?
I'm curious.
Yes.
But only "Thunderball" and "Goldfinger" had bigger admission figures than "Skyfall" in the US.
And yes, today the earth population is much bigger, and Bond films are shown in much more countries. "Thunderball" and "Goldfinger" were not shown in China, Russia etc. - so todays movies have the advantage, that they have access to a bigger audience.
But nonetheless "Skyfall" is one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) successes in the worldwide Bond history.
It clearly is the third most succesful Bondfilm (admissions wise) in most countries behind "Thunderball" and "Goldfinger".
Thanks...........its surprising how many Bond fans do not know these true facts!
:)
They were up to and including TLD but I remember even the UK having a poor reaction to LTK. Gladys Knight's Bond theme being cited the only decent thing about it!
I recall leaving the cinema underwhelmed, in 1988 I became a hardcore fan - owning all the films, reading all the Fleming books, joining the 007 fan club - and was probably a bit too hyped for LTK.
That said, from the moment I owned it on VHS it climbed in my rankings and now nearly 30 years on it regularly alternates first place with OHMSS on my Bond marathons!
It'll be interesting to see where we all rank SP come the Blu Ray release.
It's also #13 on the all-time worldwide list (unadjusted for inflation) which is pretty impressive if you ask me, especially since a lot of films ahead of it are '3d'.
Funny.......coz i joined the 007 fan club in the late 80's during the Dalton era.
True......LTK was beaten in the UK by other big films of that year, but it still made a decent gross in the UK, which was slightly higher than TLD...........you can read it in the 007 magazines of that time.
:)
Well I recall people weren't impressed by Brosnan from Remington Steel, and typically enough the UK press were favouring lightweights like Ian Ogilvy and Lewis Collins, and somewhat relieved to get Dalton but LTK changed all that and Brosnan was welcomed warmly for GE.
A lot of my own friends preferred Brosnan to Dalton (I learnt to bite my tongue) and another friend whom claims to know his Fleming still rates Brosnan over Craig (tongue still bit!).
I think even in the UK the Brosnan films with their nod to US blockbuster sensibilities found favour and the UK press were just as hostile to Craig but against expectation there was just something about CR or Craig that started to bring a different audience in for Bond. Even in about the fourth week of CR there were groups of middle-aged women coming in to watch it without being dragged by husbands. On the opening night of SP there were also large groups of young women too. Whether that's for Craig himself or the human nature plots of the Craig era I'm not so sure. Has SP now alienated such an audience?
But yes having a British actor as Bond again has probably made the UK a little more protective towards Bond again.
IMO whatever money is lost in US will be made up by other markets, especially China. This is the first 'fun' Bond since 2002, long before China could single handedly make a film successful. I think SP could easily double the BO of SF in China for this reason.
Those talking about an american led narrative dominating the word simply don't understand. Look at terminator Genisys, or Transformers. These are proof that a film can be rejected by one country and embraced by another.
My final prediction: 1,000,000,000
The US reviews and reaction have been disheartening but we still need 'em on board!
Bond 25 will be interesting. On one hand EON will want to get the critical plaudits again but on another they will want to hit out and regain their action film prestige from MI-RN and Bourne 5.
SP should have been that perfect marriage of both but hasn't quite achieved it.
Thanks.
I followed the box office action on CR quite closely and I could see there was a huge uptick when it came out so I realized it was bringing in a new audience. I think it topped the UK charts for 2006 or something like that. Re: the middle aged women, I'm sure a fit bod in swim trunks in Nassau can have an effect.....
I don't know where to find UK stats for the Brosnan era, but I would be curious to see if it dipped during TWINE/DAD (I know DAD did better in the US and globally than the other ones but I'm not sure about the UK).
Yes, I remember LTK being a relative bust in the UK as well, but that was a crazy year, and the BAT symbol was in every tube station.
A lot of dads and moms had to take the kids to see Peanuts here. I almost had to but mine decided on SP instead.
I also still think $1 billion is on the cards ............ but i'll hedge my bets, until next weekend, to see how the film opens up in those big markets such as China, France, Australia and S.Korea, and how well the film has done in its 2nd weekends in the US and elsewhere.
Actually, i'll probably wait until the film has reached $999,999,999 before i'll say the film will reach the Billion mark!
:))
Craig really only skyrocketed to unknown heights with Skyfall.
Something that should not be forgotten!!
Skyfall really was a phenomenon. Phenomenons don't come in dozens.
If Spectre makes "only" 800 million, it still will be a HUGE success! But I get that most people will view it as a failure then, which of course is highly illogical.
I love how internation fans can compare movies ITT :D
In the Balkan the movie is also having a really wide release. AFAIK it's the biggest release from all year. Avengers had a wide release (like 5 showings on premiere night) but SPECTRE blow it off the water..it had like 7 showings one day before the premiere and like 10+ for the premiere day...and it is still going strong.
For Skyfall, it had it's first screening around 20 November.....and it last around 5th February or so.....if SPECTRE is still showing around January I would consider it a huge success...but honestly I doubt it will survive till late January, as Star Wars is released in December, and Star Wars is shaping up to have even wider release than SPECTRE so that will definitely take some of SP's profits.
Also let's not forget The Hunger Games (last movie) which should make around 650m (if not more!!) worldwide
Actually SP is still ahead of SF in the UK by 6% overall. Film only dropped 29% in its 2nd weekend.........tally as of now is just over a whopping $100 mil..............not bad for a little island eh?
Yes........i'am sure many of the Mums and Dads who took their kids to see 'Peanuts' will go eventually to see SP..........in the US & Canada!
LTK was much more profitable than QOS for example, just so you know.
But it did have the lowest Box Office.
In the end the bookkeepers at Cubby's for sure were satisfied with LTK.
Perhaps the USA will be the only real "bump" in the box office results :-)? Let's see. I just saw "SPECTRE" a 2nd time, and I wanted to be Blofeld and put my elementary school teacher in that chair. And then actually drill his eyes empty. And then hold my pussy on my chest and say to him: "FFFF you!" :-).
Anyway, after 2 weeks in cinema's across the planet, this is the global box office tally at the moment (opening weekend USA included):
$ 296,100,000
Of which $ 223 Million comes solely from the foreign markets. Sadly, I can't compare this figure with "Skyfall" :-).
@Cowley, I highly recommend MI-GP & MI-RN. Great fun, both of them.
Bond is a superior experience because he's Bond of course, & I wouldn't want Bond to become Hunt or to follow Hunt (in a way he already is, with team MI6, something I'm not a fan of), but those two last MI films in particular have absolutely phenomenal action sequences and a fair amount of style (particularly the last one).
That's where I think Bond has to improve - action sequences. We only really got one superb action set piece in SF & in SP (the pretitles) imho. The other ones fell a little flat for me.
I already rank it the best Bond movie ever and now even above Batman Begins and Star Trek First Contact (the other 2 of my Top 3 favourite movies ever with GE) and if Spectre improves further on me (tomorrow I see it the 4th time) I fear I will have a heart attack during one of the many exciting sequences :))
According to 'BOM' Skyfall's 2nd weekend drop in the UK was only 20.6%...........did read that, at that time the 2nd weekend Friday was a holiday of some sort, hence why SF had a high 2nd weekend take.
Wow. High praise indeed.
Great, thanks @mepal1. That's not too bad of a drop off then. 6% above SF in weekend 2 is not bad at all for the UK.
Yes, imagine my shock and pure horror realising I had to dethrone Goldeneye to No 2 in my ranking :))
Craig joins now the club of "two's" in my Top 10 with Connery, Dalton, Brosnan and Craig now all having 2 movies in there.
1. SP
2. GE
3. OHMSS
4. CR
5. TLD
6. OP
7. FRWL
8. GF
9. LTK
10. TND
And where is DAD? I thought that was one of your favs, given you keep defending it here?
Good point..........i believe LTK coast $42 mil to make, but made back $156 mil worldwide......i also think the marketing costs must of been very low for the film, coz studio was going thru' a very bad patch at the time, and the marketeers basically apart from putting up some Bond posters in the US, virtually gave the film no push whatsoever, and just released the film to see if it would swim or sink on its own, unfortunately during the summer of 1989, the other blockbusters were heavily marketed, and the US public was deemed to of been pretty much unaware that a new Bond adventure was upon them. In the end though LTK got destroyed in the US, by Lethal Weapon 2, when it was released only a week after LTK, and the audience took more highly to the buddy type characters of Riggs and Murtaugh, than the rather dour Bond.
You mean to the blond side :))
Yes I finally warmed up to Craig, but I have to say, it's really mostly because of his two movies after CR that I wasn't too fond of him.
I was always more a fan of the movies first, than the actors, which I think can be seen in my Top 10.