King Of The Hill: James Bond and His Contemporaries

James Bond is so cool. 25 movies in 58 years. One of the oldest film franchises that is still running today.
However, the field is now occupied with other IPs in the spy genre. The big fish being:

Mission Impossible
Fast and the Furious (5-8 + Hobbs and Shaw)
Jack Ryan (Amazon)
Kingsman
Jason Bourne

One and done movies like Spy (2015), Atomic Blond, The Man From U.N.C.L.E all found love from the audience for various reasons.


With the most recent Bond film being Spectre (not the best Bond but not the worst), and the 5 year gap between it and No Time To Die. Bond hasn't been as sharp as he used to be. And as I listed above, other franchises have cut into Bond's pie and are taking bigger pieces out of the audience BO. Just examine the massive success FF has found since they ditched the street racing angle.

Mission Impossible his handling save the world, stolen nuke and crooked agents and stolen money plots. Threats Bond hasn't done in over a decade.

Fast and the Furious' car chases make the ones we saw in Spectre and Quantum look really sad. I shudder to think that DAD had the last good car chase scene in recent Bond films.

Jason Bourne brings the fisticuffs and gun play that was last done excellently in Casino Royale.

You get the point.

I've said before on this board, that I think Spectre really mailed it in and failed to make the franchise standout or say anything new. Released in a year with 5 other spy films (MI5, Spy, UNCLE, Bridge of Spies, FF7); Spectre was an unsatisfying bite to end 2015 for me.


I made this thread to discuss what you think Bond needs to do to keep it's head above water. Other IPs have moved in and they're not going anywhere. MI7-8 will be out in 2021-2022, Jason Bourne 6 is coming, FF9 is in production, Kingsman 3 is coming, Jack Ryan season 2 will be out in a month (and Amazon has already renewed it for a 3rd season. If NTTD doesn't knock it out of the park, I feel Bond will look like it's standing still in a very competitive field. Where blockbusters and franchise tentpoles have begun to cannibalize each other at the box office.




As a thought exercise, I want you to consider the recent Bond and MI films. Focusing on the ones that were released in the same year. Since 1995, Bond has released 8 films and MI has released 6.

1995-1996: Goldeneye vs Mission Impossible

2002: Die Another Day vs M:I 2

2006: Casino Royale vs M:I 3

2011-2012: Skyfall vs M:I 4 Ghost Protocol

2015: Spectre vs M:I 5 Rogue Nation

2018: M:I 6 Fallout

Lining the films up side by side. We can see some of each franchises highs and lows (2002 for both). MI6 doesn't have a corresponding film released closed to it. However of the unpaired one from the Bond side, TND, TWINE and QoS. I doubt anyone would totem pole them above MI6.

Competition breeds excellence and I would say MI has been on Bond's heels whenever they release side by side.
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