The recent James Bond film, "Skyfall," saw tremendous success during its opening weekend at the box office, but how much of those ticket sales had to do with the iconic Bond cars? According to research done by the UK company Car Loan 4U, some of the spy's rides have a correlation with higher box office receipts.
In "Skyfall," Bond and his cohorts spend a lot of time driving in cars like a Jaguar XJ, Range Rover Sport and an Aston Martin DB5, AutoBlog reports. The Aston Martin brand has long been associated with the international man of mystery, dating back to its inaugural appearance in the 1964 film "Goldfinger." Other brands featured in past films include BMW, Lotus, Bentley, Toyota, Ford and even Jeep.
Based on the box office gross for each movie and brand of car featured in them, films with British-made cars have performed the best, raking in nearly $8 billion worldwide. American cars were a distant second with about $2 billion, followed by German, Japanese and French vehicles. Additionally, the most successful individual films were those with an Aston Martin as the main ride. The worst performing movies had Lotus, Jeep, Range Rover and Kenworth automobiles - apparently, no amount of auto repair or improvements could make these cars top the allure of the Aston Martin.