Bond franchise June 2024: The more things change…

The blog last did a post about the state of the James Bond film franchise in August 2023. Has much changed? To a degree, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

The text of that 2023 post follows, with updates in boldface italic. Phrased in regular boldface were part of the original post.

The James Bond film franchise has been on the sidelines since the fall of 2021 when No Time to Die was released.

2022, for Eon Productions, was a year of celebration about Daniel Craig’s last outing as Bond plus the 60th anniversary of the franchise itself. In 2023 and into 2024? There wasn’t very much actual news. U.K. tabloids insisted there was a new Bond actor (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) but there’s no proof that’s the case.

For 2024, there are issues related to the franchise and the overall movie industry.

Does Danjaq/Eon have a succession plan? Danjaq (the parent company) and Eon (which makes the movies) are a family business. A famous family business, to be sure. But a family business, nevertheless.

Family businesses can be hard to keep together as the third generation of a family takes over.

In the second generation of Danjaq/Eon, Michael G. Wilson is 82. Barbara Broccoli turns 64 on June 18. Outside the family, nobody knows about a succession plan. The conventional fan wisdom is that Gregg Wilson, Michael’s son, will continue to take on more responsibility while Barbara Broccoli continues.

Danjaq/Eon’s relationship with a new studio regime: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Danjaq’s long-time studio partner, was acquired by Amazon in 2021. When that happened, Eon’s Wilson and Broccoli said they wanted Amazon to keep MGM film executives Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy.

That didn’t happen. The two executives departed MGM in 2022 and landed at Warner Bros.

That raises the question of how well Danjaq/Eon is getting along with the Amazon-owned MGM. Nobody really knows, it’s not something either side is talking about. Amazon Prime did televise a 007-themed reality show.

Industry changes, rising budgets: No Time to Die had a production budget in the $300 million range (perhaps much more), not including marketing expenses. That makes it harder to turn a profit during a movie’s theatrical run.

In 2023, other films ran into the same math. Variety published a story about the financial difficulties facing Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One. Both had big, $300 million (or more) budgets. Each is coming up short in their theatrical runs.

Meanwhile, cheaper movies such as Barbie (which has passed the $1 billion mark at the global box office) and Oppenheimer appear to be solidly profitable during their theatrical run before getting to pay-per-view and home video. Barbie’s budget was about $145 million, according to Variety, with Oppenheimer weighing in at about $100 million.

The Bond franchise has found itself in the blockbuster competition. But when the film Bond began 62 years ago, things were more modest. By the time You Only Live Twice (1967) came out, the budget for Ken Adam’s massive volcano set alone matched Dr. No’s $1 million production budget.

Since then, the series has expanded its scope, occasionally dialing things back before going big again. The last two entries, SPECTRE and No Time to Die, have been extremely expensive, even adjusting for inflation.

Of course, the industry itself is experiencing changes with streaming and other issues.

Where do you go from here? Danjaq/Eon is confronting many questions all at the same time. Craig is gone. A successor, presumably, will depend on who comes in as director. Do you stay with the uber-serious Craig tone? Or do you lighten up a bit?

In June 2024, there are more questions than answers.