What factors have contributed to the success of Skyfall?

It has been announced that Skyfall has  earned at least $1bn (£620 million) at the global box office, with $710.6 million (£440 million) being made outside of North America.But what has made it so successful? In this essay I'll be discussing the contributing factors in Skyfall's success at the box office.

The distributing team played a huge part in the films success, as stated, this is supported by the quote from Gary Barber, MGM's Chairman and CEO."It is truly thrilling to reach this incredible milestone. With tremendous gratitude to Barbara and Michael, Sam, Daniel and our partner Sony, and to all of the dedicated distributors and fans across the globe, we are so proud of both Skyfall and our 50 year association with James Bond."

Its popularity is a boost for MGM following a turbulent few years, in which the studio came close to collapse and filed for bankruptcy protection.
The actors contributed to the success of the film massively as there was a magnetic performance from Oscar winner Javier Bardem, who delivered one of the most memorable Bond villains in recent years. In fact, his character of Silva has been touted as the best onscreen baddie since Heath Ledger’s iconic turn as the Joker in The Dark Knight.

The marketing of this film also had a massive impact on the success, as it helped to create a huge buzz, adverts such as: the viral coke advert, the Heineken ads (they contributed £28 million, a 1/3 of their overall budget), the Omega (watch) ads etc.

Adele's song played a huge part in the success of the film as it went to number one and was the first Bond theme song to be awarded with an Oscar. This created a huge buzz all around the world. In addition, this song stayed true to the Bond image as it was suave, cool and sophisticated but it had a modern edge which made it current.

Furthermore, this film appealed to a far diverse audience as it stayed true to the traditional Bond series by including the fast cars and the gadgets but with a modern twist i.e. the gun. Moreover, this Bond film appeared more to women in comparison to the other Bond films as the female characters weren't seen as sexual objects for Bond to sleep with then eventually fails to save them resulting in their demise, this film showed women to be strong and powerful as the "Bond girl" was revealed at the end of the film; as the character "Ms Moneypenny". Alternatively, the characters Ms Moneypenny and M were seen as Bond's equals in this film and not just background characters.  

Alternatively, the fact that Skyfall has a rather multi-cultural cast also had an impact on the films success as it was able to appeal to a broader audience, as they have actors from Spain, China, France etc. However  the film didn't do as well in China as it expected as according to reports, some of its scenes have been censored and altered to make it acceptable to the Chinese authorities.

In conclusion, the main factors that contributed to the success of Skyfall was the marketing, with events like the    2012 Olympics- the brilliant PR stunt done with the Queen, which was played to millions of people worldwide at the Opening ceremony and all the advertising, as they were in conjunction with Coke, Sony, Heineken, BMW, Omega watches and many more. Furthermore, production practices such as choosing the noted and well acclaimed director Sam Mendes was key to the success of the film and updating the Bond franchise to be more slick and modern (like the Bourne films, as prior to this film being made, there was a lot of press saying that Bourne was doing James Bond better than James Bond) by not having so many cliche car chases, but enough to stay true to the Bond image.