Thunderball poster sells for $13,145

Thunderball British quad that was auctioned Saturday

A 1965 Thunderball poster was sold for $13,145 on Saturday, including a buyer’s premium, as part of an auction of James Bond film posters and lobby cards by Heritage Auctions.

The Thunderball poster was a British quad, put up for sale by collector Gary J. Firuta, who earlier this month sold off his collection of first-edition James Bond novels.

Here’s part of the description of the Thunderball poster by Heritage:

This extremely rare and highly sought country of origin British quad will surely be the highlight of all Bond fans’ attentions. Ian Fleming’s agent 007 is at his most spectacular, with Sean Connery in his fourth, and some say best, outing as Bond. As seen on this advance quad, the non stop action takes place in the air, on the land, and in the sea. Only a small number of copies still exist left uncut and this is the only poster from this film to use the artwork featured on the lower right side by Robert McGinnis and Frank McCarthy.

Another highlight of the sale was a Goldfinger “Style B” British quad that went for $10,157.50, including the buyer’s premium. This version had “more conservative artwork for the film was produced primarily for Ireland,” according to the Heritage description. It was also put up for sale by Firuta.

Prices varied widely and 1970s posters put up for sale by Firuta fetched less. A version of The Man With The Golden Gun‘s poster that included Bond villains from previous films went for $1,971.75. A British quad of Moonraker, which also plugged Seiko watches, sold for $406.30. A British quad for The Spy Who Loved Me, that also plugged Seiko, sold for $370.45.

SPECTRE may pass break-even point this weekend

SPECTRE promotional art

SPECTRE may surpass the break-even point this weekend less than a month after its premiere.

Exhibitor Relations, which tracks movie box-office data said in a tweet that the 24th James Bond movie’s global box office “looks to top” the $670 million mark this weekend.

While only studio accountants know for sure, VARIETY ESTIMATED NOV. 4 that SPECTRE needed $650 million in worldwide box office to break even. Here’s an excerpt from that story:

With a price tag of $250 million, plus more than $100 million in marketing and promotion costs, industry executives predict that the picture will have to do $650 million to break even. That’s because “Spectre’s” backers, a group that includes Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer and Eon Productions, will have to split revenues with exhibitors. Fewer than 90 films have ever achieved that gross globally and only one other Bond film, “Skyfall,” has ever surpassed that mark.

Skyfall’s global box office was $1.11 billion. An estimate for SPECTRE’s third weekend in the U.S. and Canada will be released Sunday and the actual figure on Monday.

Here’s the tweet from Exhibitor Relations.

SPECTRE lit up $4.2M last night, and an estimated $14.6M for the weekend, $153.7M total. Worldwide tally looks to top $670M through Sunday.

— Exhibitor Relations (@ERCboxoffice) November 21, 2015