All right, take hold of something, this is going to be a loooong post. As promised, I will give you the rankings of all the Bond movies in France, along with the first movie and the first French movie of each year. All numbers come from the French Wikipedia, except when noted otherwise.
As you probably know, the first Bond movie, Dr. No, appeared in French theatres in 1963. And it did quite well: fourth place, with 4 772 685 seats. The first movie that year was John Sturges’s The Great Escape, with 8 756 631 tickets sold. The first French movie, La Cuisine au Beurre, stands at second with 6 396 529 seats.
In 1964, FRWL stands at third place, with 5 623 910 seats. The first movie that year is also a French movie, Le Gendarme de St Tropez, with 7 809 334 tickets sold.
In 1965, we get two bond movies: Goldfinger is at second place with 6 675 000 seats, while Thunderball sells 5 735 000 tickets. The first movie is also the first French movie, Le Corniaud, with an impressive 11 740 438 admissions.
In 1967, YOLT gets to fourth place, with 4 489 249 seats. First place goes again to a French movie starring Louis de Funes, Les Grandes Vacances, with 6 986 917 tickets sold. The unofficial Casino Royale gets only 1 740 504 admissions. (for CR, source: [url]
http://www.jpbox-office.com/fichfilm.php?id=9132[/url]
OHMSS in 1969 will do better than that, with 1 958 172 tickets sold. The first movie that year was Once Upon a Time in the West with 14 862 831 seats. First French movie (and second overall) was Le Cerveau with 5 547 305 admissions. (For OHMSS, source: [url]
http://www.jpbox-office.com/fichfilm.php?id=9028[/url]
Sean Connery’s return in 1971 places DAF at 12th place, with 2 493 739 seats. First movie that year was The Aristocats, with 12 481 726 tickets sold. First French movie, Les Bidasses en Folie, is at second place with 7 460 911 admissions.
In 1973, Roger Moore’s first outing, LALD, arrives at sixth, with 3 053 913 seats. First French movie and first overall is Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob, seen by 7 295 811 people.
1974: TMWTGG stands at 12th place, with 2 873 898 seats. First French movie and first overall goes to the legendary Emmanuelle, with 8 894 024 tickets sold (impressive, considering that movie was forbidden to anyone under 18).
1977 will se a return to form for TSWLM, with 3 500 993 seats, putting it in third place, behind two American movies, The Rescuers with 7 219 476 tickets sold, and of course Star Wars, which was seen by 6 450 991 people. First French movie, L’Animal, arrives fifth with 3 157 789 admissions.
In 1979, Moonraker arrives fifth with 3 171 274 seats, while the first French movie, and first overall, Le Gendarme et les Gendarmettes, sells 6 280 070 tickets.
1981: FYEO manages to sell 3 181 840 tickets, placing it at seventh place. The first movie is again a French one, La Chèvre, with 7 080 137 seats.
In 1983, for the third and last time, France gets two Bond movies. Octopussy places 14th with 2 944 481 seats, while NSNA goes to 16th with 2 582 054 tickets sold. First place goes to The Gods Must Be Crazy, with 5 950 061 admissions, while the first French movie, L’Été Meurtrier, goes to second place with 5 137 040 seats.
Roger Moore’s last movie, AVTAK, is 15th in 1985, with 2 423 306 seats. First place goes to the French movie Trois Hommes et un Couffin (remade as Three Men and a Baby), with 10 251 813 tickets sold.
In 1987, Dalton’s first, TLD, arrives 14th with 1 978 347 seats, while first place goes to Crocodile Dundee, with 5 887 982 tickets sold. For the first French movie, it depends on whether you include co-productions or not. If yes, then it’s The Last Emperor, second with 4 728 518 tickets sold. If you don’t, then it’s Au Revoir Les Enfants, third with 3 610 324 admissions.
Dalton’s last outing, LTK, climbs to 9th place in 1989, with 2 110 402 seats. First movie goes to Rain Man, with 6 474 520 tickets sold. You have to scroll down to 10 (if you count co-productions) or 11th place (if not) to find the first french movie, with either Cinema Paradiso and its 2 052 787 admissions, or Trop Belle Pour Toi with its 2 031 131 seats.
In 1995, Goldeneye climbs to 6th place with 3 493 610 seats. The first movie is also the first French movie, Les Trois Frères, with 6 875 616 tickets sold.
1997 sees TND drops to 8th place, despite selling 3 571 826 tickets (more than GE). First movie is Le Cinquième Élément with 7 699 038 seats. But can we really consider it a french movie ? Wikipedia says yes, but you can feel free to disagree.
in 1999, TWINE goes to sixth place with 3 599 609 seats. First place goes to the French movie Astérix & Obélix contre César, with 8 948 624 tickets sold.
2002 sees DAD goes to 8th place with 4 015 654 seats. Once again, Astérix goes to first place, Mission Cléopatre selling 14 559 509 tickets.
In 2006, Casino Royale sells 3 182 602 tickets, putting it in 9th place. First movie is the French Les Bronzés 3: Amis pour la Vie, which attracts 10 355 928 viewers.
In 2008, QOS climbs to 5th place with 3 721 442 seats. But even Bond can't withstand the juggernaut that is Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis, and its 20 328 052 tickets sold (first place for a french movie, and second place overall after Titanic and its 20 634 001 seats, since we started counting admissions).
And we get to Skyfall, still playing, which has managed to beat Goldfinger, and been the most successful movie in 2012 in France, with 6 967 007 seats, while the first French movie that year is Sur la Piste du Marsupilami, and its 5 302 691 tickets sold.
Now, that's a lot of numbers. But it would be interesting to see how Bond did in other countries, and compared with movies from said countries, and overall box office. Any volunteers ?
Comments
Thanks @Gerard for the info, its always interesting to see how films have performed in different countries.
includes total sales of tickets during entire run of the films
SPECTRE in Switzerland, Austria and Germany:
All three countries combined Star Wars TFA, Spectre, Minions were the top 3 in 2015.
SPECTRE 2015, Ticket Sales:
Switzerland: 1.028.363
Austria: 768.554
Germany: 7.089.019
in comparison: Star Wars The Force Awakens 2015, Ticket Sales:
Switzerland: 707'341 (321.022 less tickets sold than SPECTRE)
Austria: 787.908 (19.354 more tickets sold than SPECTRE)
Germany: 9.018.037 (1.929.018 more tickets sold than SPECTRE)
in comparison: Minions 2015, Ticket Sales:
Switzerland: 638.685 (389.678 less tickets sold than SPECTRE)
Austria: 787.800 (19.246 more tickets sold than SPECTRE)
Germany: 6.944.015 (145.004 less tickets sold than SPECTRE)
Fast & Furious 7 has sold 498.840 tickets in Switzerland, that's less than half of SPECTRE
In Germany slightly better ratio with 4.186.302 tickets sold, almost 3 Million less than SPECTRE
Same picture for Jurassic World, even worse.
I will do the comparisons for all Bond films available later in a chart that is easy enough to read.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box-office_France_2015
*sadly, before 1966 neither ticket sales nor box office figures exist for Germany
ticket sales = number of tickets sold
tickets sold / film / rank in year
9.000.000 YOLT (most successful film of the year)
4.000.000 OHMSS (5th place)
5.500.000 DAF (3rd place)
6.000.000 LALD (4th place)
4.500.000 TMWTGG (4th place)
7.200.000 TSWLM (2nd place, lost to Disney's The Rescuers)
5.300.000 MR (3rd place)
4.820.641 FYEO (3rd place)
4.324.692 OP (3rd place)
3.583.930 NSNA (5th place)
3.373.064 AVTAK (8th place)
3.106.367 TLD (6th place)
2.472.732 LTK (10th place)
5.501.310 GE (2nd place, lost to Babe)
4.477.102 TND (4th place, suffered greatly against Titanic!)
5.072.138 TWINE (4th place)
4.940.255 DAD (7th place)**
5.461.490 CR (5th place)
4.744.130 QOS (2nd place, lost to Madagascar 2)
7.779.654 SF (2nd place, lost to Intouchables, French film)
7.089.019 SP (3rd place)
**No other Bond film ever faced this kind of competition, DAD beaten by Lord Of The Rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Ice Age, Spider-Man, Men In Black
ranking of ticket sales:
1 9.000.000 YOLT
2 7.779.654 SF
3 7.200.000 TSWLM
4 7.089.019 SP
5 6.000.000 LALD
6 5.501.310 GE
7 5.500.000 DAF
8 5.461.490 CR
9 5.300.000 MR
10 5.072.138 TWINE
11 4.940.255 DAD
12 4.820.641 FYEO
13 4.744.130 QOS
14 4.500.000 TMWTGG
15 4.477.102 TND
16 4.324.692 OP
17 4.000.000 OHMSS
18 3.583.930 NSNA
19 3.373.064 AVTAK
20 3.106.367 TLD
21 2.472.732 LTK
with 9.000.000 YOLT is the most successful
therefore let's see which films sold more tickets from 1965 to 2017: it's a short list
1969 Once Upon A Time In The West 13.000.000
1972 Trinity Is Still My Name 11.300.000
1990 Pretty Woman 10.625.337
1993 Jurassic Park 9.367.216
1994 The Lion King 11.333.217
1996 Independence Day 9.258.993
1998 Titanic 18.081.331
2001 Harry Potter I, 12.565.007
2001 Lord Of The Rings I, 11.833.420
2002 Harry Potter II, 9.702.824
2002 Lord Of The Rings II, 10.692.798
2003 Lord Of The Rings III, 10.432.470
2009 Avatar 11.292.801
2012 Intouchables (French film) 9.140.334
2015 Star Wars TFA 9.018.037
Not even E.T. or any original Star Wars sold more tickets. Dirty Dancing came close with 8.700.000
Allow me to comment:
It becomes totally clear that GoldenEye saved the franchise in 1995.
Timothy Dalton's run suffered from the steady loss of interest in Bond in the 80s.
I'm surprised to see YOLT as the ticket leader in Germany, although I suppose films like GF & TB may have even been more successful, but cannot be verified since data is not available for pre-66.
The million ticket sales for SP in Switzerland is insane considering we only have 8 million population.
No other country has this kind of ratio.
The Swiss know what's good :P
They're also rich.
That's why 'Fifty Shades Darker' was the #1 movie there for four weeks straight!
Indeed. They only hoarded the Nazi gold in their vaults not all the unsold copies of Mein Kampf (presume they all got pulped along with Bouncing Back).
Ooh. He's done you there. Good to see the discerning Swiss cinemagoer knows a steaming turd when he sees one. How did Showgirls and Batman & Robin do out of interest?
To be fair there is that scene where he 'gives her' a Toblerone. A tad nostalgic I imagine.
Then drives to Dundee in bare feet.
Ha, or as it's known, 'A Swiss holiday'.
So don't tell any lies about us Swiss :P
I am proud Switzerland is so in love with the Bond franchise. Also Switzerland is the country best and most represented in the franchise overall.
You are all just jealous :P
It's also the place Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty went to die, so that's another feather in your cap. Ever been to the falls in Meiringen, Jason?
Oh more than once or twice as you can imagine.
The Reichenbach Fall plus Piz Gloria, really what more can we ask for, two of the most iconic places in the world.
I really hope you come to Switzerland one day.
I need to see the falls. Need, not want. I hope that by that point in my life I'll have an actual archenemy, and I can invite him there with me so we can fight it out at the falls to prove the victor of our rivalry. If I win and plunge the man over the falls I'll probably rot in a Swiss jail forever, but sometimes you've gotta do what you gotta do.