What do James Bond films earn on opening weekend?

The James Bond film SPECTRE came out this past weekend (Nov. 8). I loved it so much that I watched it twice.

My James Bond class got free shirts from Sony and went to see SPECTRE at Alamo Drafthouse on Nov. 9

I was curious and looked up what SPECTRE and previous James Bond films have earned during their opening weekends.


I was interested in the changes in early viewership and reception between the movies and also wanted to see how SPECTRE stacked up against the other recent films.


I found some websites with useful information, but they featured long lists on numbers and data which played tricks with my eyes.


There was a graph with squiggly lines which helped a little but was still confusing and didn't really help me comprehend what I was looking for.

Recently in my Online & Digital PR class, we've been talking about the importance of data visualization.

Not only do colorful pictures draw our eyes and keep our attention for longer, but it is easier for us to distinguish trends, patterns and possible anomalies when looking at visual data.

Therefore, I decided to make my own infographic interpreting this data.

The gauge chart focuses on which month each film was released, while showing how much they earned in their opening weekends in comparison with the other films.

The blue/green sections represent summer months while the purple sections represent winter months.

The move from summer to winter months appears to have significantly impacted the James Bond franchise.


The bar graph focuses on how much each of the films earned on opening weekend.

I color-coded this graph by the actors who played Bond to differentiate the eras of the films.

While The Spy Who Loved Me ($1,347,927) does not appear on the chart, the other films range from $6,834,967 (For Your Eyes Only) to $88,364,714 (Skyfall).

The source of information I used only had opening weekend box office information for the James Bond films made from 1977 to 2015.

Although the numbers for SPECTRE are estimated rather than definite because it released so recently, I went ahead and included its weekend performance at $73,000,000.


I think it is interesting to note the increase in the immediate earnings when Pierce Brosnan entered the world of Bond in 1995, after six years with no James Bond films. This contrasts with the decrease when Daniel Craig premiered as Bond, although his films have gone on to be big earners.

While the James Bond films have always been popular, they have been becomingly increasingly large productions which generally results in larger returns. I would like to go on to compare production budgets with the films' earnings and look at overall box office results for the James Bond films.

However, this train of thought will probably have to wait until I finish finals and end-of-semester projects.


Looking forward to my James Bond class' discussion on SPECTRE this evening,
The Purple Writer