More Than A Number

Activision launched “James Bond 007: Blood Stone” this week with a gala event that could have rivaled a movie launch. Champagne flowed and Joss Stone entertained at the event; guests got a close look at iconic Bond memorabilia like the famous teeth worn by the villain Jaws and Oddjob’s hat from “Goldfinger” among other things.

However, unspoken questions dominated the event. “When is the next Bond movie coming out? Will it come out? Is it over for 007?” Michael G. Wilson, a long time Bond Producer, seemed to have the same questions on his mind as he quipped “I wish we were launching a movie” during his speech at the event.

The next Bond movie, dubbed “Bond 23” so far, has been officially “suspended indefinitely”. The problem is MGM; the studio has a $4 billion debt it has to settle and has no idea how it is going to do it. So far several interested parties have made offers and among them are Lionsgate, Summit Entertainment and Spyglass Entertainment. But the best bid so far has come from Time Warner. Unfortunately the $1.5 billion that TW offered is not the figure that MGM is looking at. Any low bid takeovers would not be good news for the Bond franchise as well. For example, the budget for a Bond movie is about the same as the budget Lionsgate has for an entire year.

While all of this seems like bad news, consider this – when “Goldeneye” came out in 1995 it made $352 million worldwide and that was after a six year break when no one believed Bond had it in him to pull in audiences.