(Still) Shaken, Not Stirred.
by Rebekka Zuckermann Kristiansen ~ October 8th, 2012. Filed under: Uncategorized.The Popularity of 007 Sheds Light on Hollywood-viewers Lack of Film Loyalty
The Economist recently published an article on the popular James Bond industry’s 50 year anniversary highlighting not the immediate question of why the story of the British agent ages so well, but rather why contemporary Hollywood fails to create another equally popular film series. Every now and then we are confronted with a new 007 film, to our (general) excitement, but as we face yet another Shrek film we tend to not be equally pleased as we leave the cinema.
Sure, 007 is originally a fiction series that survived the test of time and readers’ patience as well as outlived its own author, but why do we (the short attention-span viewers today) stick to 007 when Spider Man throws another $200+ million budget film at us? It could be any number of factors, including the stability of the story pattern or the strong British accent we all either love or hate, but it may also be the early brand positioning of 007, first as a fiction series, later as legendary films with cool explosions, that has lead to the loyalty of the viewers for half a century, continually sustaining 007’s legendary image.
