Would Americans Rather See an American Film Over Bond?

DavidJones

I've always wondered whether Bond films have a minor problem in the U.S. in that American audiences would rather see an American film over Bond. Hence, for example, Lethal Weapon 2 doing better than Licence to Kill in '89.

Is there any credence to this, do you think?

Cheverian

No.

Cheverian

Seriously, though, I think what we Yanks love about Bond is his Britishness. An American could never be as suave as Bond. He doesn’t carry himself with the sort of brash cockiness of American action heroes (Tom Cruise, Bruce Willis, etc). He doesn’t need to show what a man he is. He just....is.

Revelator

By the 1980s it was pretty clear that the American mass audience preferred newer franchises with American heroes--hence the mostly downward American box office of the Bond films during the 1980s. After LTK sank in the sea of summer blockbusters in 1989, the Bond films resumed opening in the fall, when there was less competition. Even Craig's Bond films would have suffered if they'd opened in the summer. So the answer to your question is yes.

Asp9mm

Asking this in a Bond fan forum isn’t the best place to ask this question )

caractacus potts

theres a lot of Bond tributes in these big American films, The Incredibles, Mission Impossible, Black Panther...
so I think American audiences dig the Bond fantasy enough that an American filmmaker will include Bond-style content to keep them happy even if the rest of the film isn't all that great

Austin Powers is a Canadian doing an American made film about a British character so is a bit more complicated. Myers is including a lot of references to British spyfilms and comedy of the 1960s that are obscure now (and as a Canadian might have been more exposed to that stuff as a child) … yet those Austin Powers films were hugely popular in the States

Dirty Punker

But considering the amount of success it got because of Bond wasn't because audiences really preferred it but because it had the right content that would appeal to people in some cases more than Tomorrow Never Dies.

Also considering the fact that Tomorrow Never Dies in particular went against the Titanic and it did as well as it did, I think goes to show that Bond still held a special place in the box office.

superado

For all practical purposes, production-wise aren’t the Bond films really American, but masquerading as British? Even the primary audience they’re made for is the American market.