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The James Bond Thread: RIP Robbie Coltrane


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Up to $130 million now domestically for a grand total of $543 million worldwide. Realistically I think it'll finish around $800 million but that international box office might push it even further. Next weekend it'll take a hit with the Hunger Games but I expect the daily grosses this week to be comparable to Skyfall just as last week was. In any event, it seems that the critics can't do too much damage to Bond.

Hasn't been released in China yet.

Yes it has. This weekend it opened with $48 million there - well on its way to far surpassing Skyfall which made $59 million there over its entire run. New record!

Nice! It topped the US box office for the second week. Bond always does well overseas though

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Or they changed the name to SPECTRE because they knew Green told Bond all about Quantum.

You get a sense that Quantum is much bigger than Green though. The only time you saw Quantum was the opera house and there are clearly many of these millionaire - theoretical future Bond villains - and they bugger off. And ironically the same thing happens to Spectre - well Bond just gets chased from the meeting room. Presumably knocking off the head of Spectre (Blofeld) would not end the organisation? Total unresolved plot holes. In essence you have two identical criminal organisations still in existence, who are meant to be much bigger than the sum of their parts!

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Yeah, I never noticed this in the other sequences but he had a gun in this one. Did he have one in the others?

Even with the mess of the script, Craig as always is the best part. He alone is responsible for the success of the series in the last 10 years. Okay credit can go to Campbell and Mendes too for making two of the best Bond films, but with a mediocre script and Mendes reluctantly coming back, Craig just kills it.

The franchise started going downhill with Cubby's death, the magic was gone. I don't think Barb and Mike have Cubby's touch. Brosnan did the best he could, but he couldn't save the series from them. I can't see this working after Craig unless they get some better writers.

Also, him being shirtless in the titles, a little much don't you think? Put a damn suit on him.

The wife was particularly pleased with the titles

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I think as far as writing goes, SPECTRE proves that Purvis and Wade are an asset to the franchise at this point. They apparently improved a potential disaster of a script big time after EON brought them in at the eleventh hour. Die Another Day aside, they've got a pretty good track record. The World Is Not Enough is rusty but that's mostly at the hands of the misguided direction as well as the studio demanding that EON keep up the action quota of the Brosnan formula. Otherwise, they successfully brought a badass version of Casino Royale to the page. Skyfall, of course, is a league of its own. Even with the writer's strike, QOS is far from the weakest entry in the series. Now, they brought us a solid version of SPECTRE as opposed to an apparent disaster.

It seems that Purvis and Wade are best involved from the beginning. They're good at laying out the groundwork. Then it's fair to have another set of eyes polish the dialogue and tighten a few loose screws (Paul Haggis, John Logan, etc...) as opposed to doing it the other way around. Alternatively, we need some new writers entirely. Still, I'm willing to give Purvis and Wade another shot.

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Or they changed the name to SPECTRE because they knew Green told Bond all about Quantum.

You get a sense that Quantum is much bigger than Green though. The only time you saw Quantum was the opera house and there are clearly many of these millionaire - theoretical future Bond villains - and they bugger off. And ironically the same thing happens to Spectre - well Bond just gets chased from the meeting room. Presumably knocking off the head of Spectre (Blofeld) would not end the organisation? Total unresolved plot holes. In essence you have two identical criminal organisations still in existence, who are meant to be much bigger than the sum of their parts!

Quantum was probably taken over by SPECTRE. A more sadistic organization hence White's departure.

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I just don't see how Daniel seemed bored in his performance. It's probably the most comfortable he's looked in the role to date. I do think he shot himself in the foot with his initial comments about being over the role because I think that's really affecting how people are watching the film. Kind of like a "he doesn't care so why should we" sort of thing. Not saying that's why you feel that way Bono (obviously you can feel about the film however you want), but I just bring that up because it's been a common criticism in most of the North American reviews.

I guess it's been doing Skyfall numbers all week at the box office though - Monday through Thursday grosses in North America were about equal to Skyfall. Not bad considering all the negative press.

yeah that's not at all why I feel that way and until just now reading your comments I had no idea he even said that. It just seemed to me he was going through the motions and the movie as a whole just seemed that way. Like really the actions scenes were some of the most uninspiring, least interesting, least intense scenes I've ever scene. I don't the movie just didn't work for me.

How he easily seduces women? He's James Bond.

Guess you missed the part where I made it clear that even though he's James Bond it was still laughable by those standards. It's like this movie became a caricature of past Bond movies.

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Or they changed the name to SPECTRE because they knew Green told Bond all about Quantum.

You get a sense that Quantum is much bigger than Green though. The only time you saw Quantum was the opera house and there are clearly many of these millionaire - theoretical future Bond villains - and they bugger off. And ironically the same thing happens to Spectre - well Bond just gets chased from the meeting room. Presumably knocking off the head of Spectre (Blofeld) would not end the organisation? Total unresolved plot holes. In essence you have two identical criminal organisations still in existence, who are meant to be much bigger than the sum of their parts!

Quantum was probably taken over by SPECTRE. A more sadistic organization hence White's departure.

True and I actually think that is the idea but it is somewhat lost in the mix.

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I just don't see how Daniel seemed bored in his performance. It's probably the most comfortable he's looked in the role to date. I do think he shot himself in the foot with his initial comments about being over the role because I think that's really affecting how people are watching the film. Kind of like a "he doesn't care so why should we" sort of thing. Not saying that's why you feel that way Bono (obviously you can feel about the film however you want), but I just bring that up because it's been a common criticism in most of the North American reviews.

I guess it's been doing Skyfall numbers all week at the box office though - Monday through Thursday grosses in North America were about equal to Skyfall. Not bad considering all the negative press.

yeah that's not at all why I feel that way and until just now reading your comments I had no idea he even said that. It just seemed to me he was going through the motions and the movie as a whole just seemed that way. Like really the actions scenes were some of the most uninspiring, least interesting, least intense scenes I've ever scene. I don't the movie just didn't work for me.

Very fair. I can agree about the car case being fairly uninteresting. Nothing really happens aside from a phone call and the lone joke in the movie that the reviewers were right to call a Moore leftover.

He's got some valid criticisms. It's always nice to see him praise Daniel too. Brosnan is a classy guy, although it's a bit ironic to see him of all Bonds criticizing a weak plot. :lol:

However, whoever wrote the article is an idiot. $650 million to break even? Do they not know what break even means? The budget was $250 million with an estimated $120 million spent on marketing. Let's round up and say it cost $400 million to make this movie. Breaking even would therefore be $400 million. The film has already greatly surpassed that. The true box office experts (Deadline and BOM) are well aware of the commercial success of this film. Even Sony predicted in the leaks that it would make about $750 million worldwide (a realistic guess that it'd be down from Skyfall which got a year of free promotion). The movie is doing well commercially, but it's quickly becoming the movie that critics are anxious to label a failure. It could make $900 million and they'll still call it a flop, meanwhile other studios would kill for these profits.

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Breaking even includes more than just the budget and marketing.

This article goes into a better detail of it.

Also from Variety:

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. Of course, there are other ancillary sources of income, including television deals and home entertainment sales, that would cushion the blow should “Spectre” fall short of that lofty figure.
Edited by Crazyman
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Double post but totally worth it. I always love reading these "what could have been" things with the Bond franchise.

Also damn you George for being a hippy. DAF would've been awesome had you stayed.

Michelle Yeoh should've been the Bond girl in DAD, too. Couldn't have saved that movie but would've made it at least a little more bearable.

Edited by Crazyman
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Breaking even includes more than just the budget and marketing.

This article goes into a better detail of it.

Also from Variety:

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. Thats because Spectres 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. Of course, there are other ancillary sources of income, including television deals and home entertainment sales, that would cushion the blow should Spectre fall short of that lofty figure.

That's fair, I hadn't considered that. I suppose It was just peculiar wording considering it's already bound to smoke the $650 million mark. Still, according to the Sony leaks, the studio will be content with $750 million and as things stand the film should even do beyond that.

On another note, I saw the film again today and absolutely loved it for on second go. I think the first time I was overthinking it a bit, so this time I sat back and enjoyed it simply as a spy thriller that recalls the classic Bond while not straying too far from what the Craig era has brought us. Christoph Waltz is an amazing Blofeld and I really hope we haven't seen the last of him. The crowd was also more lively this time than opening night, so that was a bonus too. This elderly lady a couple seats over was literally clapping at every joke and "Bond moment" in the film. :lol:

One thing I missed on the first go was that the bullet holes when Bond shoots at Blofeld in the old MI6 building form the shape of an octopus. Nice little Easter egg that serves as a nod to the teaser poster.

The opening sequence truly is amazing and I'd say it's one of the best in the franchise.

What else can I say? I love this movie. It's not "blow my mind like Skyfall did" or anything but it's a damn good James Bond film, and sometimes that's all that matters.

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Or they changed the name to SPECTRE because they knew Green told Bond all about Quantum.

You get a sense that Quantum is much bigger than Green though. The only time you saw Quantum was the opera house and there are clearly many of these millionaire - theoretical future Bond villains - and they bugger off. And ironically the same thing happens to Spectre - well Bond just gets chased from the meeting room. Presumably knocking off the head of Spectre (Blofeld) would not end the organisation? Total unresolved plot holes. In essence you have two identical criminal organisations still in existence, who are meant to be much bigger than the sum of their parts!

Quantum was probably taken over by SPECTRE. A more sadistic organization hence White's departure.

I'd say that's plausible. White makes it clear that Blofeld had gone too far. Even if both organizations technically still exist in the Bond universe I wouldn't label them plot holes quite yet. The beauty of them being unresolved is that Bond can theoretically continue to fight Quantum/SPECTRE for years to come, even if he kills Blofeld in the next film. Hopefully the next film gives us a bit more explanation as to what happened to Quantum but all the same that's an issue that can be brought up later on as new villains continue to be introduced. Based on the recent real world events involving terrorism I think that the idea that "we have people everywhere" will continue to be relevant in Bond films for a while.

The "now we know what C stands for" joke got the most laughs in both of my showings.

They didn't get it in my theater. lol.

It got more laughs at my first showing but nevertheless both times it had a decent reaction. Q says some really funny shit in this movie too, and that was appreciated by both my crowds. I have to say that I was very impressed with the audience yesterday considering it was a 3:50 showing on a Tuesday. On that note, Q and M are big reasons why I don't want Craig going anywhere yet - I love the relationship that is developing between all of them. At least Barbara confirmed at the German premiere that they'll take a few months and then they'll begin work on Bond 25.

As another aside - this gun barrel is easily my favorite of Craig's (and not just because it's at the beginning :lol:). His walk, turn, and shoot is the best of the latter three (Casino is obviously different and it works fantastically in that film). Quantum's is too fast and awkward, but Skyfall would be a close second. Craig is the only Bond to have filmed a new gun barrel for every single film.

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I love Bill Conti but I find most of his FYEO score to be clunky and horribly dated, even more so than the disco flavoured score of TSWLM. That said, the FYEO gun barrel cue is one of my favourites in the entire series. It really gives a huge entrance to Bond (and there's cowbell). I always found the John Barry gun barrel cues post-Connery to be fairly uninteresting. It's the same boring string arrangement throughout the four Moore films he scored and The Living Daylights. With the Connery films (and OHMSS) he gave us a distinct gun barrel every time.

The worst offender is TSWLM. A copy/paste mess of a gun barrel cue.

As much as the film is shit, David Arnold's gun barrel cue for DAD is phenomenal. I do hope he returns to the series at some point. I'm liking Thomas Newman but even he's been relying on David Arnold's arrangement of the Bond theme instead of giving us his own so I'm inclined to say EON hasn't forgotten about David Arnold despite Mendes preferring to use Newman for personal loyalty.

Edited by James Bond
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