Do you love James Bond? Robert Prechter’s new book, Socionomic Studies of Society and Culture, says audiences’ answers change with the stock market. See for yourself in the following excerpt.
Chapter 10
By Mark Galasiewski and Chuck Thompson
Figure 1
Bond films’ popularity first peaked with Goldfinger in 1964 as social mood and the markets approached a positive extreme. Then the negative mood trend of 1966-1982 impacted Bond filmmakers, making them introspective, doubting and cynical. Ratings suffered as the bear market wore on and bottomed with Never Say Never Again (1983), shortly after social mood registered a negative extreme in 1982.
A trend toward positive mood in the 1980s and 1990s returned the films to popularity. Low ratings for two Bond movies in the late 1990s were anomalous, but Bond bottomed with stocks in 2002. In 2006, the rating for a new version of Casino Royale registered an all-time high in tandem with all-time highs in both the Dow and global real estate prices.
James Bond is equipped with fast cars and high-tech gadgets. He has a talent for outwitting the best criminal masterminds in the world. When it’s time to pack a punch, he has the muscle to take down his opponents. But one thing he can’t control is filmmakers’ motivation and the public’s appetite for his fast-paced, good-guy/bad-guy films. For that, Bond needs a healthy dose of positive social mood.
Suppose you could understand why stars who rule the airwaves and movie screens one minute can be catapulted to obscurity the next. And why genres of TV shows become popular overnight. How and why trends fluctuate in the attendance of sporting events. Socionomic Studies of Society and Culture rewrites the book on what makes pop culture popular. Each chapter unveils how you can understand—and sometimes even anticipate—trends in areas from fast cars to superstars and from sex to the cineplex.
Socionomic Causality in Politics is one of two new books from Robert Prechter, both of which are available exclusively on Amazon. For a limited time, get special pricing: Visit http://amzn.to/2xdob7u (Socionomic Causality in Politics) and http://amzn.to/2xVAXGy (Socionomic Studies of Society and Culture) to order.
The Socionomist enables you to see trend-shaping waves of social mood, as reflected by the stock market — and capitalize on them. The June issue looks at phases of social mood and features a “Research Roundup,” which highlights five academic studies that shine a light on important aspects of socionomic theory. Mood Riffs topics include “quiet luxury,” loneliness, the Writers Guild strike and efforts by countries to trade in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. Read the June issue when you become a Socionomics Premier Member.
