EON, a closely held (private and family) corporation, was started by film producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman in 1961, at the same time they partnered and sought financing for Dr. No the year before they formed the eponymously named Danjaq — which for legal reasons became EON's holding company from which it licenses the copyright protections allowing EON to produce the Bond films. Cubby Broccoli had been interested in the Bond novels rights for several years but was disuaded from making them project by his former partner. When they dissolved their relationship he was free to pursue the property, for which Saltzman, a novice to film production had taken a gamble to acquire. The two were introduced by a New York writer who was acquainted with both, and formed a partnership within a week of meeting. The enterprise was and is still very much a family business, including both wives and the principle partners, as well as several of their progeny, the latter group now carrying on their parents' work. Cubby almost immediately included Dana Broccoli's college aged son Michael G. Wilson in even the early films doing various production jobs and his engineering education was put to good use occasionally in some of the series' special effects.

In 1975 after nine Bond films, Harry Saltzman sold his shares of Danjaq to United Artists (the then-current Bond series distributor). Although Albert R. Broccoli died in 1996, EON Productions is still owned by the Broccoli family, specifically Albert R. Broccoli's daughter, Barbara Broccoli, and his stepson and her half-brother by actress Dana Wilson Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson, who are the current producers of the James Bond films.

Albert R. Broccoli's name has appeared in the opening "presents" credit of every EON-produced James Bond film, and always as the very first name in the credits from The Spy Who Loved Me onwards. From Dr. No through The Man with the Golden Gun, the credit was "Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman present"; for some films Saltzman originally came first (and still does in the film itself and/or its original posters), but all present-day printed credits have been changed to list Broccoli first. After Saltzman left, the opening credit was simply "Albert R. Broccoli presents" through to GoldenEye (the last film made before Broccoli's death), even after Barbara Broccoli & Michael G. Wilson replaced him as producers. On all films since Broccoli's death, the opening credit is "Albert R. Broccoli's EON Productions presents", with "Limited" usually added after "Productions" in the film proper.

The copyrights & trademarks for the film properties (beginning with Dr. No) are held by Danjaq and United Artists Corporation; the latter was bought by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1981, but as an MGM subsidiary its name still appears in Bond copyright & trademark disclaimers to this day. Casino Royale (2006) and Quantum of Solace (2008) were co-distributed with Columbia Pictures (which appeared along with Danjaq & United Artists in their copyright disclaimers), with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment assuming video rights to the former; MGM retained the video rights for the latter.

These EON productions are commonly referred to as "official" James Bond films, whereas the 1954 television adaptation of Casino Royale, the 1967 film spoof Casino Royale and Sean Connery's 1983 film Never Say Never Again are "unofficial" because they were not produced by EON and do not form part of the main canon (this also means that they lack familiar elements such as the James Bond Theme music and the opening Gunbarrel sequence).

These are the Bond films produced by EON Productions:

Since their first film, Dr. No in 1962, there has only been one film made by EON Productions that wasn't a part of the Bond series: Call Me Bwana, starring Bob Hope. (Though Saltzman and Broccoli produced other films separately and jointly — including the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, also based on a book by Ian Fleming.)

In 2008, EON signed a deal with Columbia Pictures to develop fifteen thrillers and family films outside the Bond franchise, with budgets of up to US$80 million (GBP40 million). The company hopes the move will allow more British writers to establish themselves in the United States.

In 2000, EON productions served a cease-and-desist letter to Cheapass Games to stop them from using the name "Mr. Bond" in the title of their game Before I Kill You, Mr. Bond. In 2004, the game was reissued under the title James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game.

In 2004 Electronic Arts developed a video game with the James Bond licence titled Everything or Nothing, which was thought to be named after the production company. Albert R. Broccoli had always denied that "EON" stood for anything specifically.