Sony and MGM Have a Bond Blockbuster Weekend

Well, it indeed seems that the global movie industry is recession resistant. Or, at least it was this past weekend. The 22nd James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, from MGM and Sony (SNE) brought in over $70 million at the U.S. box office its opening weekend, the biggest opening ever for any film in the franchise, bringing its total worldwide take to $322 million.

This is 74 percent higher than the previous Bond film, Casino Royale, which grossed $600 million worldwide, putting "Quantum" on track to beat that. And Bond made the overall box office look very healthy: it's up 50 percent over the same weekend a year ago.

One reason "Quantum" performed so well, is that it appealed to a fairly wide demographic. While most action movies appeal mostly to a younger male audience, about 58 percent of the audience was over the age of 25. And the fact that the last Bond film earned such a huge following for star Daniel Craig definitely helped create some pent-up demand.

I sat down with Michael Lynton, CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, for a "First on CNBC" interview, to talk about the performance of the film. Lynton wouldn't predict overall box office, but he was optimistic that the movie will hold up through the holiday season, expecting about 2/3 of box office revenues to continue to come from overseas.

In fact, Lynton was pretty optimistic in general about the movie industry. He's not planning to cut back on the number of movies Sony produces or make any dramatic changes, though he did say the company is certainly looking for opportunities to save money. Lynton says he thinks people will continue to come out for must-see events, like the Bond franchise, or its Spider-Man franchise. Sony also has the sequel to The DaVinci Code, Angels & Demons, coming out next year. There's also the idea that big, proven stars will be able to keep audiences in seats: Sony has Will Smith's Seven Pounds coming out this December, and Smith is perhaps the most proven movie star when it comes to packing theaters these days.

Now while Bond is certainly valuable for Sony, all the rights to produce films in that franchise revert to MGM after this current film. But Lynton isn't giving up; he told me today he'd love the opportunity to continue to work on Bond and make some sort of deal with MGM to continue that relationship. It'll be interesting to see whether the credit crunch encourages any more cooperation in the film industry when it comes to co-financing, etc.

Comments

[busbyseotest:]

what an awesome weekend!

2008 Nov 18 06:13 AM