Recently I had occasion to write about the James Bond film series and how EON Productions seems to have been very slow about the task of developing the next installment in the series. This seems understandable given the extreme shock to the global cinematic market that COVID-19 caused, to say nothing of associated economic and political turmoil (rising interest rates,
uncertainty about the Chinese market, etc.)--and the less than confident feeling the response to the last film must leave them with. (Even if COVID was principally at fault for the weaker gross, the fact remains that the earnings were down, while there was worry about declining interest among younger filmgoers.) And, let us be frank, there is the difficulty of reinventing the wheel yet again that not just the Bond series, but the whole action-adventure film genre faces. (For almost a half century now the Bond series has stayed in business by "borrowing" ideas from other hit movies--and now there don't really seem to be any.)
Still, it makes quite the contrast with the sheer aggressiveness of Disney as it continues to barrage the public with more Marvel and more Star Wars, or even Warner Brothers as, even after the failure of the Justice League to become a second Avengers, it remains committed to DC.
Why is that the case? I suppose it is because the Bond films have only a protagonist rather than a whole world to offer, let alone a world where single aspects can be a basis for a billion dollar hit. DC, if admittedly having the advantage of controversy, managed to make a billion dollar hit out of the Joker's origin story (a pastiche of a Scorsese movie that, ironically, became bigger than any Scorsese movie ever was at the box office).
By contrast I have yet to hear of anyone who, after watching
Spectre, was eager for a prequel movie about Ernst Stavro Blofeld's back story.
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