Bond Comparative Box Office Showings

bondjames

Mendes4Lyfe wrote: »

Are these productions actually becoming bigger in scale? I know they have a lot more time now to plan, compared with the 60's, but have they actually gotten bigger or just kept pace with inflation? I once heard that adjusted for inflation Thunderball is one of the top earning Bond films. So if that is true of the gross, is it true of the budget also?

I'm just curious if these films are actually becoming more elaborate or they are just taking advantage of new technologies that save costs.

It's a function of a few factors.

The costs of making a Bond film have increased over the years in excess of ticket price inflation, squeezing the profitability in comparison to the early years. Rules, regulations, insurance, politics etc. raise the costs of going to a foreign country and filming over a period of time. What could have been done with relative ease in the past now requires a battalion of people (including lawyers). So for the same (inflation adjusted) costs, one gets far less bang for the buck. All this while inflation adjusted average ticket prices (excluding IMAX, 4K and other fanciful experiences) and audiences decline due to competing mediums (tv, streaming, home video etc.).

In terms of whether they are becoming more extravagant, I think that varies depending on the films. The Gilbert films were very lavish and ambitious for their time (and highly successful), but films like CR or GE are far less elaborate (in terms of scale) and still very successful.

Looking at the data, the later Brosnan films, QoS and SP have not been as impressive in terms of return for the amount of coin spent. The data is not inflation adjusted, but it doesn't matter if one is comparing rate of return since both costs and revenue are from the same year (or only a year different).

BondJasonBond006

The only way to measure the success of a film is ticket sales in numbers. Sadly the US chose not to release ticket sales numbers.
Many countries do though, like Germany which is one of the biggest markets.

The Bond films in Germany from 1967* to 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)

**Many Bond films faced fierce competition, DAD's though was ridiculously tough. 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

Gerard

Funny, not a german movie in the last list.

I'll have to do the same for France one day. maybe this sunday.

BondJasonBond006

.

vzok

Go on, do the Switzerland list anyway.

Gerard

All right, as promised, here's the box-office of Bond for France :

1 SF 7 003 902 (1st)
2 GF 6 675 000 (2nd)
3 TB 5 735 000 (3rd)
4 FRWL 5 623 910 (3rd)
5 SP 4 982 985 (4th)
6 DN 4 772 685 (4th)
7 YOLT 4 489 249 (4th)
8 DAD 4 015 654 (8th)
9 QOS 3 721 442 (5th)
10 TWINE 3 599 609 (6th)
11 TND 3 571 826 (8th)
12 TSWLM 3 500 993 (3rd)
13 GE 3 493 610 (6th)
14 CR '06 3 182 602 (9th)
15 FYEO 3 181 840 (7th)
16 MR 3 171 274 (5th)
17 LALD 3 053 913 (6th)
18 OP 2 944 481 (14th)
19 TMWTGG 2 873 898 (12th)
20 NSNA 2 582 054 (16th)
21 DAF 2 493 739 (13th)
22 AVTAK 2 423 306 (15th)
23 LTK 2 110 402 (9th)
24 TLD 1 978 347 (14th)
25 OHMSS 1 958 172 (14th)
26 CR '67 1 740 504 (21st)

So, SF is the movie to beat with 7 003 902 tickets sold. How many movies beat that from 1963 (the year Bond first appeared on our screen) till today ? Well, quite a few in fact. 51 to be precise :

1998 TITANIC 20 634 793
2008 BIENVENUE CHEZ LES CH'TIS 20 489 303
2011 INTOUCHABLES 19 490 688
1966 LA GRANDE VADROUILLE 17 267 607
1969 ONCE UPON A TIME IN WEST 14 862 764
2009 AVATAR 14 677 888
2002 ASTÉRIX ET OBÉLIX : MISSION CLÉOPATRE 14 559 509
1993 LES VISITEURS 13 782 991
2014 QU'EST-CE QU'ON A FAIT AU BON DIEU ? 12 361 430
1965 LE CORNIAUD 11 739 783
2015 THE FORCE AWAKENS 10 505 479
2006 LES BRONZÉS 3 : AMIS POUR LA VIE 10 355 930
2000 TAXI 2 10 345 901
1985 TROIS HOMMES ET UN COUFFIN 10 251 465
1994 THE LION KING 10 135 871
1966 DR. ZHIVAGO 9 816 054
2001 HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOPHER'S STONE 9 470 090
2003 FINDING NEMO 9 311 689
1998 LE DÎNER DE CONS 9 247 001
2002 HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS 9 144 701
1988 L'OURS 9 136 266
1988 LE GRAND BLEU 9 074 317
1999 ASTÉRIX ET OBÉLIX CONTRE CÉSAR 8 948 624
1974 EMMANUELLE 8 893 996
1963 LA GRANDE ÉVASION 8 756 631
2001 LE FABULAUEX DESTIN D'AMÉLIE POULAIN 8 636 041
2004 LES CHORISTES 8 636 016
2011 RIEN A DÉCLARER 8 150 825
1998 LES VISITEURS 2 - LES COULOIRS DU TEMPS 8 043 129
1982 E.T. 7 881 332
1994 UN INDIEN DANS LA VILLE 7 870 802
1999 TARZAN 7 859 751
2007 RATATOUILLE 7 845 210
2001 LA VÉRITÉ SI JE MENS 7 826 393
1964 LE GENDARME DE SAINT TROPEZ 7 809 334
2009 ICE AGE 3 : DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS 7 803 757
2000 THE SIXTH SENSE 7 799 130
2005 HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE 7 731 601
1997 THE FIFTH ELEMENT 7 727 697
1971 LES BIDASSES EN FOLIE 7 460 911
2014 LA FAMILLE BÉLIER 7 450 944
2003 THE LORD OF THE RINGS : THE RETURN OF THE KING 7 393 904
1999 THE PHANTOM MENACE 7 303 131
1973 LES AVENTURES DE RABBI JACOB 7 295 727
1993 ALADDIN 7 280 423
1991 DANCES WITH WOLVES 7 280 124
2005 REVENGE OF THE SITH 7 247 809
1986 JEAN DE FLORETTE 7 223 657
2004 SHREK II 7 185 626
2004 HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN 7 138 548
1981 LA CHEVRE 7 079 674

Sorry for the bad presentation, but I did the charts on Excel, and did a copy-paste. And BTW, the eyars on the second chart are the years in which the movies appeared on french screens. Which explains why Titanic is put in 1998 instead of 1997.

PrinceKamalKhan

bondjames wrote: »

Mendes4Lyfe wrote: »

Are these productions actually becoming bigger in scale? I know they have a lot more time now to plan, compared with the 60's, but have they actually gotten bigger or just kept pace with inflation? I once heard that adjusted for inflation Thunderball is one of the top earning Bond films. So if that is true of the gross, is it true of the budget also?

I'm just curious if these films are actually becoming more elaborate or they are just taking advantage of new technologies that save costs.

It's a function of a few factors.

The costs of making a Bond film have increased over the years in excess of ticket price inflation, squeezing the profitability in comparison to the early years. Rules, regulations, insurance, politics etc. raise the costs of going to a foreign country and filming over a period of time. What could have been done with relative ease in the past now requires a battalion of people (including lawyers). So for the same (inflation adjusted) costs, one gets far less bang for the buck. All this while inflation adjusted average ticket prices (excluding IMAX, 4K and other fanciful experiences) and audiences decline due to competing mediums (tv, streaming, home video etc.).

In terms of whether they are becoming more extravagant, I think that varies depending on the films. The Gilbert films were very lavish and ambitious for their time (and highly successful), but films like CR or GE are far less elaborate (in terms of scale) and still very successful.

Looking at the data, the later Brosnan films, QoS and SP have not been as impressive in terms of return for the amount of coin spent. The data is not inflation adjusted, but it doesn't matter if one is comparing rate of return since both costs and revenue are from the same year (or only a year different).

Thanks for posting that film box office chart.