viktor_haag: (Default)
viktor_haag ([personal profile] viktor_haag) wrote2008-04-25 10:01 am

Interesting CineBond trivia...

As of last year this time, and adjusting for dollar value, what is the most money-making Bond movie of all time? I was floored to find out. Guesses welcome in the comments: if you want to know without faffing about, you can click through to this post in Todd Alcott's LJ (found through Robin D. Laws).

Was this the clear signal to the moneymakers behind the franchise that they didn't need anything more than the bare minimum in the formula to make big dollars? Interesting.

[identity profile] viktor-haag.livejournal.com 2008-04-25 04:25 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm sure you're right about the whole "societal perfect storm" thing. I'm not sure what other "blockbuster" type movies were around in 1965. However, comparing the '65 Oscars and their huge raft of widescreen family entertainment (Dr Zhivago? Sound Of Music?) and the '66 Oscars (which would have been the year that the Bond film tipped), we see a distinct turn.

In '66, we have Zinneman's "Man for All Seasons" winning best picture, and look at the other choices: "Alfie", "The Russians are Coming (x2)", "The Sand Pebbles", and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf". Woah.

In '65, we had "Doctor Zhivago", "Sound of Music", "Cat Ballou", Olivier's "Othello", "Ship of Fools", "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold".

Seems to me like it's entirely possible that the "let's just go see a movie to be entertained" dollars were more thinly stretched in '65 than '66... but I'm no film historian...

[identity profile] waiwode.livejournal.com 2008-04-25 04:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Although, for the record, I do really like "The Sand Pebbles."

Doug.

[identity profile] viktor-haag.livejournal.com 2008-04-25 05:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Hmm -- I don't think I've ever seen it. And look at all those movies that Bergen made before "Carnal Knowledge"! For some reason, I thought that was her first big film...