Chart of the Day

The Declining Return on Investing in James Bond

Serena Dai 5,370 Views Oct 23, 2012

The new James Bond film Skyfall premiered in London today for the franchise's 50th anniversary, but 007 does not give as much bang for buck as he used to, according to this chart from business intelligence company BIME. Using data from The Numbers, BIME compared James Bond film budgets with each film's return on investment, or the gross earnings divided by the budget. The yellow bars represent budgets, which have increased steadily, and the line graph represents ROI. As you can see, since 1963's Dr. No, James Bond movies have gotten more expensive and less profitable. 

While production companies invest more money in the films, they're making far less than they did in the '60s. Of course, this may speak more to the movie industry as a whole rather then the value of Bond. Movie production costs are higher now, and often franchises earn money from peripheral products like video games and merchandise—not just ticket sales. From the looks of the solid reviews, Skyfall, which premieres in the U.S. on November 9, will probably keep the franchise strong, even if huge numbers of people don't go to see it.

See more BIME charts here

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