James Bond - the man with the golden franchise

With the modern Western subconscious increasingly obsessed with youth and escapism, it's no surprise that today's most successful entertainment franchise centers around a pubescent wizard, writes Forbes.

But half a century ago, in the midst of the Cold War, the masses craved a hero who was virile yet romantic, spartan yet decadent, principled without being ideological.

That, at least, was the estimation of British spy-cum-journalist Ian Fleming, who would have been 100 on May 28. And if the success of the James Bond franchise is a sufficient gauge, Fleming was right on the Moneypenny.

Since his introduction in the 1953 novel Casino Royale, 007's popularity has led to sales of billions of dollars worth of books, movie tickets, videogames--and even cars, watches and little-known spirits. The current total value of the Bond franchise? Hard to be exact, given the secrecy that surrounds much of its operations (especially the literary side). But it's in the ballpark of $13.5 billion--roughly the size of Burma's gross domestic product.

Last year, Warner Bros. Entertainment couldn't resist skewering the competition by announcing that its Harry Potter movie franchise had become the most successful in cinematic history--with $4.47 billion aggregate worldwide gross, compared with roughly $4.4 billion for the 21 Bond films to date.

Looks like the upstart franchise was getting a bit ahead of itself. Adjusted for inflation, the Bond films have generated a whopping $11.5 billion at the box office, beginning with 1962's Dr. No and continuing through 2006's Casino Royale.

Still, recent Bond films haven't matched the success of early favorites like 1965's Thunderball, which had a box office return of nearly $1 billion, adjusted for inflation. Stars Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig have, however, returned the franchise to respectable profit margins following Timothy Dalton's disastrous two-film run in the late 1980s. All "official" Bond films have been famously produced by Eon Productions, an offshoot of Danjaq, which holds the copyrights to James Bond's on-screen world. Danjaq was formed in the early 1960s by producers Albert "Cubby" Broccoli and Harry Saltzman; its name reportedly pays tribute to their respective spouses, and it's said to still be controlled by members of the Broccoli clan.

It's on the books side of things that the Team Potter has been flying broomstick circles around Camp 007. 100 million copies of James Bond books have been sold in the series' 56-year history--101 million if you include figures from the "Young James Bond" line introduced in 2005. Still doesn't quite compare with the 400 million copies of the seven Harry Potter books that have disappeared from shelves since 1997. Each Potter installment sells at least as well as its predecessor.

With little exception, the best-selling Bond book on an annual basis has been 1957's From Russia With Love, Fleming's fifth 007 novel. The last novel in the series, 2002's The Man With The Red Tattoo (by Raymond Benson), sold only 13,000 hardcovers and 12,000 paperbacks in the U.S.--26% worse than the one before it, according to Nielsen BookScan. The Bond franchise's literary rights are controlled by Ian Fleming Publications, headed by the author's heirs. The company's spokeswoman says its financial information is as much a secret as Q's latest invention. Recent reports say Ian Fleming Publications was $233,000 in the red for 2006. Perhaps not surprising that the newest installment, Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks, features a limited edition of 100 Bentley-themed copies selling for $1,500 apiece.

Recent setbacks notwithstanding, James Bond was the original entertainment franchise, paving the way for Harry Potter, Star Wars, Lara Croft and others. More than 30 million James Bond videogames have been sold. 007 action figures from the mid-1960s go for as much as $900 a set. In January 2006, a 1965 DB5 Aston Martin used in Thunderball auctioned for $2.09 million. Upscale versions of the official James Bond watch, the Omega Seamaster, retail for nearly $5,000.

Not bad at all for a man who, aside from the expense account that M set up for him in a Swiss bank, has to live on a civil servant's salary.

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