Billion Dollar Bond Within Reach?

Time for another Skyfall Box Office update. Taking full advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, Skyfall supplanted Quantum of Solace and Casino Royale to become the biggest James Bond film ever in America. It currently sits at $221 million, which is well above Quantum of Solace’s previous record of $168 million. Skyfall took in another $36 million in its 3rd weekend which is quite impressive. That’s more than this year’s The Dark Knight Rises and actually places it 6th on the all-time “top 3rd weekend list” (yes there is a list for that). Box Office Mojo now predicts that Skyfall could pass $270 million.

Worldwide, Skyfall has reached $790 million adding another $41.3 million to its tally outside of the US. This weekend it opened in Australia where Sony had their best-ever opening with $12.5 million. In the UK, its total has reached $144.5 million, only $5.5 million shy of the UK’s all-time record currently held by Avatar. According to Box Office Mojo, Skyfall should pass $900 million in its existing markets, but it still has Japan and China where the two could combine to push Bond over the one billion mark. In case you’re keeping track, adjusting worldwide figures is not a simple task, but if you simply take Thunderball’s $141 million (1965) and adjust at the US rate of inflation (consumer price index) that puts Thunderball at $1,036,887,630. Goldfinger (1964) would follow at $931,983,650. Skyfall currently ranks #3.

From Summer 0077: The Spy Who Loved Me’s 007th Minute

Image ‘Dear diary’ by ‘incurable hippie’ (c)

(contains traces of the secret diary of a super villain, found by renown beachcomber Jacques Stewart)

… and as such things do is a primarily opinionated affair. 

Tell us about your own adventures with ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ in this thread.

 

 

Time for a running total.

 

 

On the basis that this little misadventure was initially an exercise in establishing whether the 007^th minute of each film exemplified “A Bond Film”, one may as well, upon reaching 00-figures, “Apply. Observe. Conclude”, as a Chemistry teacher of mine used to shout. Given what subsequently happened to him, he evidently interpreted the process as “Binoculars. Boys. Not just calling a register but also signing one”.
Accordingly, working through our nine 007^th minutes so far, in order, where we appear to get to is:-

 

 

1.    British interests are in dire peril; the stiff upper hair is wobbling. Send for the hero, a high-living gambler.

 

 

2.    The opposition are a roster of equally sophisticated parallels, although they can be more intellectually blessed than the hero.

 

 

3.    Let’s be bold and brash and a lickle bick cheeky…

 

 

4.    …and push it to the cusp of outrage, when we can.

 

 

5.    Amidst the madness, we can inject some moody solemnity for “depth” – if not realism.

 

 

6.    Thunderous action in interesting locations, and wink at the audience to reassure that everyone knows it’s all pretend.

 

 

7.    If in doubt, fall back on some proven routines…

 

 

8.    …but don’t be afraid to inject even into them an element of the bizarre and unexpected now and again.

 

 

9.    …Um…

 

 

Hmm. What is the positive ingredient to extrapolate from the 007^th minute of The Man with the Golden Gun? 9. Ensure a bird is very dead before resting one’s weapon thereupon? Not convinced that’s appropriate family viewing, although it’s arguably evident in other films in the way The Actor Pierge Brosmomb’s Bond ostentatiously sniffnibbles murdered women. Applying his little shooter is surely only one step further. 9. Do not listen to cackling power-crazed midgets? Not even when they’re banging on about the gorgeousness of Rosamund Pike? Shame. 9. Hang around filling time and wasting it in the process? Too many other examples to mention. No, no, come now Jimothy, one must be positive and clappy and blisswhacked and…

 

 

…ah.

 

continue reading…

‘Skyfall’ DVD/Blu-ray due for March 2013

Today CommanderBond.net’s ‘Zencat’ spotted the date of the ‘Skyfall’ DVD/Blu-ray release: it’s due for March 12th, 2013. The cover art can already be seen on Amazon here. Slightly unconventional, but in line with the film’s promotional material as seen to the right.

Thanks to CBn-member ‘Zencat’ for the alert.

Discuss the item in this thread.

Pure 007th Minute – 24 carat of The Man With The Golden Gun

Image ‘Ko Tapu Island’ by ‘Moe-tography’ (c)

…and every ounce of it extracted from its real 007th Minute by our resident metallurgist and fine jeweller Jacques Stewart. Exclusively  dissected and commented in the most opinionated manner by himself, just for your distraction. 

Please applaud us for this amusement in this thread.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I appear to have made a serious mistake.

 

Such confession doubtless prompts troubling thoughts in the reader, replacing that one about whether your boss is contemplating having you killed, namely:-

 

A ) of course you have, you clot. You’ve subjected yourself to The Man with the Golden Gun; and/or

 
B ) only the one serious mistake? In a whole lifetime? I find this unlikely; and/or

 

C ) you haven’t gone and told someone about that bad thing, that really bad thing you did, twice, with [name redacted: seditious libel]; and/or

 

D ) you’ve gone and spent the pocket-money Mrs Jim permits you on obscenely expensive wine again, haven’t you?

 

Tackling these in reverse order, it’s D ) how is this a mistake? Don’t understand; C ) not yet, but blackmailing Clarence House can be so protracted; B ) find it unlikely, then; I am evidently a god amongst worms and A ) ouch. Smidge harsh, pickle. More on this “soon”.

 

Nope, the serious mistake – and By Toutatis, is it serious – is that anyone bothering itself to consider these fistfuls of red-hot excreted tapeworm as anything approaching a meaningful enterprise and is playing along interactively (in which case I pity them, but pity more the people who have met them), will now have realised that the timings of the 007^th minute in each case so far is “off”. Timing’s never been my strong suit. I have more offspring than the rhythm method and piteously listless willymilk would otherwise allow, for example, and there was of course that time I sat next to Kevin Spacey on a train and failed to repeatedly smash him in that face of his with my bony elbow for making me sit through Pay It Forward.

continue reading…

Mendes co-created the idea for Bond 24, says Skyfall scribe Robert Wade.

Bleeding Cool reports that Skyfall director Sam Mendes has (along with John Logan) come up with the plot of the next Bond film. According to writer Robert Wade:

We’re very happy to have done five Bond movies, I think we’ve gotten it to a good place. I know that John Logan and Sam Mendes have come up with a plot for another one, which takes the pressure off because these films take up a lot of time.

Now of course this is no indication that Mendes is returning to direct the next film. But I agree with the author of the Bleeding Cool article, would Mendes really cook up an idea for another director? Exciting developments indeed.

Read the full article here.

Skyfall Still Flying Sky-High at the Box Office

Skyfall’s second weekend in the United States dropped approximately 53% from the previous weekend, but still put up a healthy $41.5 million and carried 007’s 23rd adventure into the Top 10 for 2012 with $161 million. According to Box Office Mojo, Skyfall will pass Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace’s total US box office take by Wednesday making it the the #1 James Bond film in the United States. Skyfall is projected to easily pass $200 million and could even make a run for $250 million.

Worldwide, Skyfall crushed its predecessors to become the #1 James Bond film (not adjusted for inflation). It also helped Sony Pictures post their biggest movie year ever, passing $4 billion with the help of The Amazing Spider-Man and Men in Black 3. MGM recently stated that they expect Skyfall to make $800 million, while last week Box Office Mojo predicted approximately $900 million. The film currently sits around $669 million.

So how is Skyfall doing at home? It currently ranks #2 on UK’s all-time list passing Toy Story 3 and Titanic this week. Only Avatar stands in its way. Skyfall already owns “biggest UK opening weekend”, “fastest film to reach £50 million”, and “highest grossing film of the year in the UK” among (similar) others.

Skyfall Video Blog – Helicopters

All ‘Skyfall’ Moving Posters

Skyfall TV Spot – The Number One Movie In The World

Live and Let Die – More Action. More Excitement. More 007th Minute!

Baron Samedi original art by Cecily Devil (c), used with kind permission

Here now another adventurous instalment of Jacques Stewart’s 007th Minute series. Watched and commented by himself. Commented by you in this thread.

Oh, and everything written here is of course subjective, seen through Jim’s eyes. Only our illustration is the genuine work of Cecily Devil, whose other work we hereby warmly recommend. You can find it at Cecily Devil’s own website here.

 

OK, so the last one was a bit unrestrained, directionless and flabby, a scattergun and largely busked collage of old tat with a distractingly sinister undertone to it all. The film it was purporting to criticise wasn’t much better, but I suppose I could argue – if bothered (not very) – that “review” and “reviewable” being of similar hopeless natures is a tremendously funny joke and, more pompously (it is possible) that Diamonds are Forever is a corrupting influence not only on the young but also on the decayfrayed and moth-chewed, i.e. me.

 

Its corrupting influence on the next few films is a popular perception, that it was with Diamonds are Forever that the rot set it, that shocking rot of making millions of dollars, oh that hateful, hateful money. The burden. Oh, the humanity. Will no-one think of the children? Tonally, its successor does look like someone was thinking of the children as ostensibly it appears to be a gentler affair, or at the very least a far more even one, absent the violent mood swings of Connery’s Fat Vegas Comeback Special. Obviously that’s only perception; it’s simply much, much better at disguising its bipolar, filleted soul, if only by dint of having an actual story this time, to distract one from all the jarring inconsistency that’s still jumping about like youths at a (ahem) “jazz funeral”. I don’t want dancing like that at my funeral, although I am trying to engineer it that there will be a good fight when they find out that all the money’s been left to, oh I dunno, some donkeys or something.

 

continue reading…