Sony is reporting that Skyfall grossed $260,000 yesterday, which was just enough to put its domestic total over the magic $300 million mark. Putting that in perspective, this means that Skyfall has nearly doubled the previous domestic-best gross of the 007 series, the $168 million grossing Quantum of Solace and the $167 million-grossing Casino Royale. Now that it's theatrical run is pretty much finished (it's got $5 million left in the tank, at the absolutely most), let's look at how it did in the grand scheme of things. Even when adjusted for inflation, the film is the third-biggest domestic earner in the series, surpassing the adjusted-$279 million gross of You Only Live Twice ($43 million in real 1967 dollars) and hanging out below only the $515 million-grossing Goldfinger ($51 million in 1964) and the $585 million-grossing Thunderball ($65 million in 1965). It's the biggest-grossing spy film of all time and the highest-grossing non-fantasy action film of all-time. Even when playing the inflation card, it's the sixth biggest spy movie ever, behind the aforementioned 60's 007 films, Mission: Impossible II ($310 million adjusted gross/$215 million actual gross) Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me ($315m/$205m), and the first Mission: Impossible ($318m/$181m). If you factor in pretty much every remotely recent non-fantastical/non superhero action franchise, it still ends up with more tickets sold than all but the likes of Beverly Hills Cop ($522m/$234m), Rambo: First Blood Part II ($329m/$150m), Rush Hour 2 ($310m/$226m), and Beverly Hills Cop II ($305m/$153m). It has sold more tickets than every Die Hard film and every Lethal Weapon film. Even when adjusted for inflation, it has outgrossed all-but one Rambo picture and two out of the three Matrix movies (Matrix Reloaded has $363m/$281m). It has outgrossed the adjusted-for-inflation totals of all but the top 14 comic book adaptations thus-far released (and it only needs another $5 million to hop up to 12 on that list). What this arguably shows is how dominant Skyfall was in terms of the real-world action picture. But of course, it also shows how heavily the top-grossing films are dominated by fantasy-laden action pictures as opposed to the more 'real people in real cities with real guns' variation that were once considered the "A" pictures (it gets pantsed by the likes of Indiana Jones and Harry Potter) before the double whammy of comic book adventures and fantasy epics took their hold on the global box office. For example, its domestic performance puts it just 17th on the list for IMAX-enhanced releases. The worldwide performance of Skyfall ($1.033 billion, the 11th-biggest grosser of all time) theoretically puts James Bond back near the top of the franchise hill, a place where it dominated back in the 1960's when it first began. Yet it also shows how insane the box office numbers, especially overseas, have become in the last five years. Skyfall is merely the third-biggest global grosser of 2012, behind The Dark Knight Rises (which "disappointed" all the way to $1.08 billion) and The Avengers ($1.5 billion). In just three years (blame 3D, I suppose), we've gone to but a handful of $1 billion grossers to a box office environment where pundits actually worry whether any big films will reach that milestone in 2013.
But for the moment, let us commemorate the incredible achievement of Skyfall. Kudos to all involved. You've revitalized the franchise, taken it to previously unseen box office heights, earned some of the best reviews of your career, and flirted with Oscar glory. Next time, Mr. Bond, I challenge you to do better.
Scott Mendelson
I'm amazed that you can write all that without mentioning the obvious; that Skyfall is now the highest grossing James Bond movie of all time. Thunderball was the record holder - at least if you play the 'adjusted for inflation' game - but Skyfall's worldwide gross has now surpassed it.
ReplyDeleteAs for Skyfall's domestic (US) gross I offer the following observation; if we were to strip out all that additional revenue Goldfinger and Thunderball made from rereleases and double-bills over the years, or to put it another way, if we were to compensate for that absence from Skyfall's single theatrical release by adding in the several hundred million Skyfall will undoubtedly gross from home video sales, then it would also end up as the highest grossing domestic Bond film release.
It's an incredible success story. And on its 50th Anniversary as well!
"It's the biggest-grossing spy film of all time and the highest-grossing *non-fantasy* action film of all-time".
ReplyDelete"But of course, it also shows how heavily the top-grossing films are dominated by fantasy-laden action pictures as opposed to the more 'real people in real cities with real guns' variation that were once considered the "A" pictures (it gets pantsed by the likes of Indiana Jones and Harry Potter) before the double whammy of comic book adventures and fantasy epics took their hold on the global box office".
Kind of odd statements to make considering some of the past entries in this franchise. That film that had the invisible car DIE ANOTHER DAY-did they get that idea from
Wonder Woman's invisible plane? http://www.maxallancollins.com/blog/2012/12/04/
A fair argument, but I would argue there is a clear difference between the kind of 'real-world' fantasy of the 007 films, even with some potentially sci-fi gadgets, and something like Fellowship of the Ring. And I'm glad to see I'm not the only one annoyed by the whole 'Bond fails every step of the way' plotting of Skyfall.
ReplyDeleteQuick question; what happened to the merchandise? I went into the supermarket and a few other such places such as dollar stores, and they did not have any toys for this franchise. I found that oddly the reviled Green Lantern had Valentine's Day cards in the store, but not this franchise. Perhaps I did not look diligently enough, of course, since I did not come to the store for that reason, but what about the children's coloring books, notebooks, candies, etc.?
ReplyDelete"But of course, it also shows how heavily the top-grossing films are dominated by fantasy-laden action pictures as opposed to the more 'real people in real cities with real guns' variation that were once considered the "A" pictures (it gets pantsed by the likes of Indiana Jones and Harry Potter) before the double whammy of comic book adventures and fantasy epics took their hold on the global box office".
ReplyDeleteIntriguing to note that many, if not most, of the more prominent indigenous comic book heroes predate most of the more prominent "regular" film adventure heroes of the 1970's and the 1980's. (Of course, most of the prominent indigenous comic strip heroes such as Dick Tracy started prior to 1940 or so; new adventure strips have not often lasted long since then.) Shaft, for example, first debuted in a 1970 novel, Die Hard derives from a 1966 novel by Roderick Thorp, Death Wish adapted a 1972 novel, etc. Not too many of these "regular adventure heroes" had deep connections to the past. (Conan debuted in 1932 in a prose horror fiction magazine, so that served as something of an exception.)
Commander Bond actually reflects this situation, as the first novel came out in 1953, long after the debuts of such kindred adventurers in the comic strips and comic books as Dick Tracy (who made his debut in 1931) and Batman (whose first appearance was in 1939), and one could even draw comparisons to Captain America (debuting in 1941) and Wonder Woman (also 1941). Prose adventurers such as Bulldog Drummond and The Saint have had a hard time in recent years.
I had no idea that Skyfall did so well at the box office. Personally, I missed this one in theatres so I’m really excited for the upcoming Blu-ray release. I’ve been a big fan of the Bond franchise, and every last Bond movie I’ve ever watched has been a blast to watch. There’s no question I had to add this one to my Blockbuster @Home rental queue so that when it’s released, it’ll be mailed straight to my house. Because I work at DISH, I’ve stayed informed on all products and services we have to offer our customers, that’s how I discovered and started using Blockbuster @Home for my movie rentals. I used to buy every movie that I wanted, and my bank account hated me for it. Once I started renting movies and video games from Blockbuster @Home, I noticed that because of its flat monthly fee how much money in my budget it freed up, and that’s a good thing.
ReplyDeleteLast night after some channel-surfing, I watched about the last 30-40 minutes of Condorman, Random thoughts:
ReplyDelete* It’s a really, really bad movie.
* I get that it’s supposed to be parodying James Bond movies, but if truth be told, it’s not all that far off from the average crappy Roger Moore Bond outing (sure, there’s the goofy superhero costume and flying contraption – but is that any more tacky than Moonraker?)