It's fine with me if you don't want to compare 60's Bond popularity with the one from the current decade (personally, I don't have problems with admit that my favorite, CR, is in the sixth place of the series, surpassed for the likes of TB and even MR). However, if we're going to measure films with just two years of difference, is pretty pertinent take to account inflation, don't you think? I mean, there aren't that many differences with other elements, from 2006 to 2008 (unlike, between sixties and present, as you accurate remarked in another posts).
By the way, about the 20 something friend... are you sure that she was really educated (no offense intended)?? But C'mon!! James Bond is part of everyone's pop culture, I knew the character, before the first EON movie that I saw, and I'm still under the thirties- well, not much, but anyway-. It's like she would have told you, that never knew about the original Star Wars trilogy's existance.
Well my anecdote aside, the point I'm making is that in market like 2008's compared to 1964, there is a massive variety of films out there that vie for the consumer's buck and Bond is not the icon that he once was thanks largely to being totally absent in the 80s and not really increasing its overall popularity in the 90s. I don't even need to take into account inflation, etc. when you note the fact that there were so few new films in 1964.
Just on ranking alone, regardless of the money made, QoS ranks 7 in the US out of over 570 films released this year. QoS was up against very poor reviews, a comparatively younger consumer base, a market that is saturated with action/adventure, effects driven films and it's a franchise that has been going for over 40 years and has lost some of its propensity to surprise the jaded viewer of the 21st century.
Consider: why was CR such a success? Because it was so different to all of the Bonds in the 90s and the average cinema-goer was either only just born then or doesn't have a very long memory anyway (to wit some of those reviewers who felt the need for a recap or flashback in QoS).
Whereas GF ranks 3 in a market of about 70 films. Bondmania was taking full force, the consumer base was older perhaps a bit more sophisticated, there were very few action/adventure alternatives and the Bond style / secret agent genre was TDK of its day. It was fresh and a huge spectacle for its time! Not to mention GF was almost universally celebrated by critics upon release.
By that reckoning QoS has been a great success!
Edited by Sniperscope, 10 January 2009 - 11:43 PM.
