MGM’s Unbreakable Bond

It’s MGM’s favorite time of year, as well it should be.

Having a perennially successful asset like the James Bond movie series is the closest thing to a sure bet in a volatile industry.

MGM’s new management, fortunate to have inherited the world’s most lucrative movie franchise, hopes that the latest Bond installment, “The World Is Not Enough,” will have a broader appeal than any film in the franchise’s 37 years. MGM is trying to target younger moviegoers more than ever before.

Internal projections at MGM, according to sources, are that the movie--which opens a week from today (Nov. 19)--will outperform the last two installments, “Tomorrow Never Dies” and “GoldenEye,” each of which grossed around $350 million worldwide. The last two films yielded more than $100 million each in profits from all global revenue sources, including theatrical, home video and television sales.

MGM gets the bulk of those profits, but not all. The heirs of late Bond producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, and other participants, are thought to take home north of 20% of the profits generated by each of the films.

A top executive at a rival studio said eating Thanksgiving dinner and going to a James Bond movie have become synonymous with what people enjoy doing over the winter holidays.

“Going to see a Bond movie is part of the culture now,” said the veteran.

Beginning with the 1962 film “Dr. No,” the 18 Bond movies made and previously released by MGM’s sister label, United Artists, have amassed nearly $3 billion in worldwide box office revenues, which adjusted for inflation in 1998 dollars would total more than $6.7 billion.

Surveys show “The World Is Not Enough” tracking well among younger males and among all moviegoers over 25. Industry sources estimate the 19th installment could debut with $30 million or more for the weekend.

“Tomorrow Never Dies” opened Nov. 19, 1997, to $25.1 million, second to 20th Century Fox’s epic drama “Titanic” with $28.6 million. While “Titanic” went on to become the highest-grossing movie ever, with more than $600 million in the U.S. and Canada alone, the Bond film held its own with a domestic gross of $125.2 million.

Regarding the prospects of “The World Is Not Enough,” MGM Chairman Alex Yemenidjian said, “In my opinion, this is the best Bond movie ever made. It takes all the elements that the audience has come to expect from a Bond movie and reinvented it to a higher level.”

Yemenidjian said that the movie “has the highest test scores of any Bond film ever.”

This installment, directed by Michael Apted, finds secret agent 007 (played for the third time by Pierce Brosnan) attempting to protect a beautiful oil heiress (Sophie Marceau) from an international terrorist (Robert Carlyle) seeking control of the world’s oil supply.

“The action scenes are awesome and the writing and wit of this film are unmatched by any other Bond film,” said Yemenidjian, noting, “We think such a balance can appeal to a much broader marketplace. . . . This is not the same formula looking for a new audience. It’s reinvented with depth, character and great dialogue.”

The MGM chief acknowledged that the studio made “a conscious decision to expand the audience” by trying to cultivate a younger following to compete with the kinds of movies topping the box office charts today.

It’s no accident that 20-something actress Denise Richards was cast as one of Bond’s female companions in the role of nuclear weapons expert Dr. Christmas Jones.

Also, the title song on the movie’s soundtrack is performed by the hip, alternative rock band Garbage. That helped interest MTV in striking a massive global promotional deal with MGM, which will feature, among other things, multiple showings of the band’s music video of the theme song on the network’s worldwide music channels.

MTV, which reaches more than 300 million homes worldwide and has a sizable teen and college-age following, will devote some 100 hours of programming to the movie.

According to executives at rival studios, MGM’s attempts to interest younger audiences in its movie appear to be working so far. Based on the latest market research (as of Thursday), they say there is strong interest among all categories of men and older women, but particularly young males.

“It’s definitely clicking with young males,” said one top studio executive.

Some of MGM’s competitors say the film could get a run for its money from Paramount Pictures’ “Sleepy Hollow,” directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci, which opens the same day.

Research shows that film is also generating strong interest among young moviegoers, especially females under 25.

But Yemenidjian remains unfazed.

“If someone said I could open any movie we had against ‘Sleepy Hollow,’ I would sign up right now. That’s a high-class problem,” said the MGM chairman, who was chosen to run MGM this year by his close associate, MGM owner Kirk Kerkorian, after working as the billionaire’s top executive in his hotel and casino business.

When it comes to making and releasing the Bond movies, MGM pulls out the financial stops. Production costs top $100 million, and it costs nearly that much again to market on a worldwide basis.

MGM also gets the benefit of about $100 million worth of additional tie-in advertising commitments on its Bond movies from such promotional partners as BMW, Visa, Omega Watches, Samsonite and Heineken.

The last three Bond movies also have had additional promotional exposure--particularly overseas, where the films typically generate twice as much box office--by such companies as Secret Identitee Merchandising.

Founded in 1984 by Marc Sirkin and his then partner Rac Clark, the Los Angeles-based company has designed 87 promotional products for “The World Is Not Enough.” Those products are sold at retail stores and through corporate partners, including Smirnoff and Hewlett-Packard and to MGM’s overseas distributor UIP.

Some products, such as silver-plated “007” martini sets and thin, black recorder pens, are being sold over the Internet on Checkout.com and other Web sites.

“Our first agenda is to service all the corporate partners assigned to the property and secondarily to work with worldwide licensing organizations to create awareness,” explained Sirkin, whose company is known for its sometimes wacky ideas such as 007 cuff link watches.

MGM officials say they are particularly encouraged that the Bond franchise is as well and alive online as it is on the big screen. The Web site, https://www.jamesbond.com, has had more than 20 million visitors in six languages in the past month.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Franchises

There’s nothing like a strong movie franchise to keep a studio happy. Franchise movies are easy to market and have a built-in audience. Worldwide box office revenue to date for some of the major franchises, in billions:

Bond (18 films*): $2.89

Star Wars (4 films): 2.69

Jurassic Park (2 films): 1.53

Indiana Jones (3 films): 1.17

* Does not include box office from “Casino Royale” and “Never Say Never Again.”

Source: MGM

--- UNPUBLISHED NOTE ---

This story has been edited to reflect a correction to the original published text. “Octopussy” was the first Bond film released under the MGM logo, not “The World Is Not Enough.”

--- END NOTE ---