James Bond's Amazon deal is bad news, Brits say in new poll

A YouGov poll about the future of the James Bond films shows that Brits think the new Amazon deal — which sees the shopping giant gaining creative control of the franchise after 60 years in the hands of the Broccoli family — will be bad for the beloved film series. It also highlighted a generation divide in opinions about Bond films overall, which shows younger generations may not be as enamoured with 007 as the older.

The poll asked: "Do you think that Amazon MGM having creative control of the franchise will be good or bad for the James Bond franchise, or will it make no difference?"

34% of the 5,665 British adults polled said they thought it would be "bad for the franchise", while just 8% thought it would be "good for the franchise".

Interestingly though, 24% of people thought it was make no difference, while 34% remained on the fence saying they didn't know what impact the deal would have.

When broken down by age demographics, the poll results reveal a generational divide in opinions too. Those in the 18-24 demographic — who grew up with the Daniel Craig Bond films in cinemas — were the most optimistic about the future of the series under Amazon, with 11% saying the new deal will be "good for the franchise", and just 19% saying it will "make no difference". However, 18-24-year-olds were also the age bracket most unsure about what the news might mean, with 38% voting "don't know".

The 50-64 demographic polled the most pessimistic, with 41% of them saying it will be "bad" for the series, while only 6% of the over 65s thought the changing of the guard would be "good" for the franchise.

The YouGov poll also showed that Brits remain passionate about Bond overall, with 19% saying they like the James Bond movies "a great deal", while 39% said they liked them "a fair amount". 26% said "not very much" while 11% said "not at all", and 5% said "don't know".

The generation divide also showed that older demographics generally felt more warmly about the Bond films than the younger age groups.

An internal Yahoo poll revealed that our users remain pessimistic about the Amazon takeover of Bond, with 74% of users saying they thought it was bad news, 18% saying it was good news, and 7% undecided.

Who has creative control over the James Bond films?

The story of who has creative control over the James Bond films dates back to 1961 when producers Albert R. 'Cubby' Broccoli and Harry Saltzman purchased the filming rights to the existing, and future, Ian Fleming James Bond novels.

In 1975, Saltzman sold his 50% share in the rights to United Artists which merged with MGM in the 1980s, paving the way for the current Amazon situation.

The original deal did not include the rights to 1954's Casino Royale or 1961's Thunderball — which is how the unofficial films including 1967's Casino Royale, and 1983's Never Say Never Again were made — but the rights were consolidated in the 2000s, when both titles were finally brought in house by Eon Productions.

For 1995's GoldenEye, Cubby Broccoli passed on creative control to his daughter Barbara Broccoli and step-son Michael G Wilson who produced every Bond film onwards until 2021's No Time To Die. After Jeff Bezos' company acquired MGM in 2022, it was assumed that both producers would remain the stewards of the Bond film, but they have now relinquished control, with a rumoured $1bn payday to sweeten the deal.

The changing of the guard signals a new era for 007, with a new James Bond film — Bond 26 — now being a question of when, not if.