The 'Johnny English' Films Achieved A Rare Box Office Milestone

Rowan Atkinson's accidental spy-comedy trilogy achieved an unprecedented box office feat of maintaining it's worldwide audience for 15 years

Rowan Atkinson in 'Johnny English Strikes Again' (CREDIT: Universal)

                      by Jack Linsdell

It may never have been an awards contender (like the Bourne franchise), an artistic triumph (the John Wick series) or critically adored (the 007 films), but Rowan Atkinson's Johnny English trilogy was sure as hell a box office hit. Over it's 15 year run, the accidental spy comedy series achieved an unprecedented and unreplicable box office feat - each installment grossed exactly the same amount worldwide as the others. 

Most movie trilogies tend to "break out" exponentially with the first sequel before experiencing a dip for the third movie, like Warner Bros.' The Matrix for example. Some, like the Matt Damon thrillers or Keanu Reeves actioners, do occasionally continue growing, wherein each installment outgrosses the previous one. However, most trilogies (and franchises for that matter) gain and then lose their audiences at one point or another, getting overall inconsistent financial success. However, for the Johnny English movies that was not the case. And, what makes that even more remarkable is it did that despite long gaps between installments, during which time huge shifts in the way movies were made and how audiences watched those movies took place, none of which had any effect on it's global audience. 

Johnny English first appeared on our screens as the core character of a Barclays advertising campaign in the mid-1990s. Played by Rowan Atkinson (fresh off his Mr Bean fame), the bumbling and inept British spy became an instant hit with TV audiences, especially families. This attracted the attention of Universal and Working Title, who hired Bond scribes Neal Purvis and Robert Wade to use the character as the basis for a 007 parody that could be a comic vehicle for Atkinson. Released in 2003, when the actual Bond series was on sabbatical thanks to Pierece Brosnan being essentially "fired", Peter Howitt's Johnny English struck big with audiences. Existing as a light, funny and optimistic heroism tale in a post-9/11 world and cashing in on the popularity of Atkinson and stars like John Malkovich (who played the villain) and pop singer Natalie Imbruglia, the movie earned an impressive $160 million on a $40 million budget. What's more, it's excellent $132 million international cume (including a strong performance in the UK where it remained the top movie for three weeks) meant that it's merely okay $28 million domestic total was pure gravy. 

The film was very successful but Universal opted to make a sequel to the 1997 movie Bean with Atkinson instead, what would become Mr Bean's Holiday released in 2007. After that movie nabbed $232 million worldwide on a $25 million budget but Atkinson explictly said "no more Bean", Universal came back to the bumbling British spy and released a sequel in 2011. Oliver Parker's Johnny English Reborn was more of a grittier, realistic movie, taking the form of a globe trotting thriller narrative. Don't forget this was when Daniel Craig's Bond had became "a British Jason Bourne" after that Matt Damon series reinvented the action genre, so it made sense for Johnny English to reflect the trend too. Adding the likes of Rosamund Pike, Dominic West and Gillian Anderson to the mix, and being more of a sophisticated action movie, Johnny English Reborn matched it's predecessor's $160 million global cume easily (on a $40 million budget), albeit with a domestic downturn (only $8.3 million this time). Due to an expanded marketplace, especially in Asia, the movie did take a big upswing abroad though earning $152 million (or $20 million more than the 2003 flick). 

Cut to another 7 years later, and we got another sequel with David Kerr's Johnny English Strikes Again. By 2018, not only had Bond gone back to it's comical/fantastical routes with Skyfall and Spectre, but Mission: Impossible had grown in popularity since it embraced itself as a family-friendly, light, action blockbuster series with Ghost Protocol. We also had massive changes in the way audiences watched movies in those intervening years, including the rise of Netflix (and other streaming platforms) who had slowly been keeping people away from theatres in favour of "home viewing" entertainment. So, Johnny English Stirkes Again adapted accordingly and became a road movie, slightly more kid-targeted and 100% more Bondian and fantastical than the 2011 sequel. And, despite another domestic downturn (a measly $4.2 million this time), an expanded Chinese marketplace ($22 million) helped push the flick to a $154 million international total. This led to an impressive $159 million on a mere $25 million budget, an unmitigated win in such a perilous theatrical environment. 

So, despite opening 7 years apart from each other, and despite all being different movies trying to capture the "at that moment" trends of the action genre, all three Johnny English movies grossed $160 million worldwide. And, not only was that against rapid changes in the way films are made (new technologies, a change from practical effects to CGI etc) but also in the ways in which audiences viewed their filmed entertainment too. The series maintained it's global audience and appeal for 15 years, despite the film industry, action genre and the overall world being massively different when each movie was released. And, it did all this without hardly any money from America, with the two sequels earning 94% and 97% of their respective cumes outside of the USA. Atkinson has always been a big draw, and being family-friendly Bond parodies filled with big stars, globe trotting action and hilarious comedy gags has allowed the Johnny English series to maintain it's appeal. All three movies are as good as each other, and different enough too to make each one feel somewhat "new" to audiences which can't have harmed either. And, also the three movies nailed English's character first and foremost which is also an undervalued part of building successful franchises.

For whatever reasons, the Johnny English movies have achieved an unprecedented box office feat, one which has never, and will never be replicated. The fact that all this came from an accidental franchise, that went from advert campaign, to Bond parody, to Hollywood sequel to successful trilogy, is even more amusing. Johnny English may be the world's most incompetent spy, but he certainly aced building a successful movie franchise.