007 by the Numbers

As the Academy Awards prepare to pay tribute to British Secret Service agent 007 and the James Bond franchise this Sunday, Nielsen looked at the most popular titles by music and disc sales.

Some key findings include:

• 1.5 million: Since its debut last year, consumers have purchased 1.5 million digital copies of Adele’s Oscar-nominated theme song to “Skyfall,” which is almost as many digital tracks as the rest of the top 10 songs combined (1.7 million digital tracks purchased).
• No. 4: Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die,” the only pre-digital era Bond song on the top five list, is the fourth best-selling Bond title track, as consumers had purchased 269,000 digital tracks as of Feb. 17.
• 453,000: Consumers have purchased 453,000 copies of the “The Best of Bond” soundtrack, the most purchases among all James Bond soundtracks, ahead of the soundtracks for “Tomorrow Never Dies” (117,000 copies purchased) and “GoldenEye” (116,000 copies).
• 21%: Action movies—moviegoers’ favorite genre to see in a theater in 2012—accounted for 21 percent of all video sales in 2012, the most sales of any genre.
• No. 1: “Skyfall,” just released on Feb. 12, is already the highest-selling DVD so far this year.

Top 10 James Bond Title Tracks by Digital Track Purchases*

Rank	James Bond Title	Year	Title Song	Artist	Digital Track Purchases
1	Skyfall	2012	Skyfall	Adele	1,552,000
2	Quantum of Solace	2008	Another Way to Die	Jack White/Alicia Keys	318,000
3	Casino Royale	2006	You Know My Name	Chris Cornell	290,000
4	Live and Let Die	1973	Live and Let Die	Paul McCartney	269,000
5	Die Another Day	2002	Die Another Day	Madonna	232,000
6	The Spy Who Loved Me	1977	Nobody Does It Better	Carly Simon	213,000
7	A View to a Kill	1985	A View to a Kill	Duran Duran	149,000
8	Goldfinger	1964	Goldfinger	Shirley Bassey	81,000
9	Dr. No	1962	James Bond Theme	John Barry	52,000
10	Diamonds Are Forever	1971	Diamonds Are Forever	Shirley Bassey	51,000
*Release-to-date digital track purchases.Read as: Since its release in 2012, U.S. consumers have purchased 1.5 million digital tracks of Adele's "Skyfall." Source: Nielsen.

Top 5 Best-Selling* James Bond Soundtracks

Rank	Title	Year Released	Album Purchases
1	The Best of Bond: James Bond^	1999, 2002, 2008, 2012	453,000
2	Tomorrow Never Dies	1997	117,000
3	GoldenEye	1995	116,000
4	Die Another Day	2002	107,000
5	The World is Not Enough	1999	60,000
*Release-to-date album purchases. ^Includes sales of all re-releases of the same album. Source: Nielsen.

Top 5 Best-Selling* James Bond Discs

Rank	Title	Year Released
1	Casino Royale	2006
2	Die Another Day	2002
3	Quantum of Solace	2008
4	The World is Not Enough	1999
5	GoldenEye	1995
*As of 2012. Based on unit sales since 2000, the first year Nielsen began tracking DVD sales. Data does not include Walmart. Source: Nielsen.