James Bond in film "Die Another Day" was written and performed by Madonna, who also had a cameo appearance in the film as a fencing instructor. "Die Another Day" had a budget of $142 million and earned $431.9 million at the box office. In 1999 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer obtained the rights to the 1967 film "Casino Royale" from Sony Pictures Entertainment for $10 million in the out-of-court settlement of a lawsuit. The case was brought by MGM after Sony had announced a deal with Kevin McClory to produce a third version of the "Thunderball" novel, for which McClory held the film rights. McClory had previously acted
Die Another Day that "Die Another Day" was "the wrong film at the wrong time." The amount of product placement in the film was a point of criticism, specifically from various news outlets such as the BBC, "Time" and Reuters who all used the pun "Buy Another Day". Reportedly 20 companies, paying $70 million, had their products featured in the film, a record at the time, although "USA Today" reported that number to be as high as $100 million. By choice, the number of companies involved in product placement was dropped to eight for the next Bond film "Casino Royale" in 2006. On