Throughout its near 60 year history in cinema, James Bond has faced many iconic and intimidating villains, yetNo Time to Dieperhaps has put up 007 against across the series’ most intimidating foe ever: COVID-19.
The writing was there on the wall alreadypointing toNo Time to Diebeing delayed again due to the fallout from the pandemic and its effects on the movie industry making it rather unwise for MGM from a business perspective to release their latest Bond film. Now, with official confirmation of further delays for 007, it may only be a matter of time before more blockbusters take the same course.
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The news was disclosed on both the official 007 site and Twitter account, with no lengthy explanations to the obvious reasons that forced MGM to again delay their biggest film, only the announcement thatNo Time to Dieis now scheduled for October 8. With movie theaters in the United States continuing to work at very limited capacity and increasingly strictlockdown measures put into place in the UKand most of Western Europe,No Time to Dieremains detached from two of its biggest markets.
Though it’s understood MGM considered the idea of selling the film’s right to streaming service like Netflix or Apple TV, offers forNo Time to Diewere nowhere near the expected profits the studio has in line for 007’s latest installment. This stalemate between studios and streaming services means distributors would rather keep their films in store until movie theaters are back to something resembling normal business conditions.
As has been noted in the past by most industry insiders and analysts, MGM faces little costs in delayingNo Time to Die, while rushing the film would compromise 007’s potential box office revenue of up to a billion dollars. Both of themost recent Bond films,SkyfallandSpectre, hovered around that profit mark and MGM will not want to take any risky business decisions after the studio recently went up for sale.
Last fallNo Time to Dieinitiated abigger shockwave of delays across the movie industry, so the same is to be expected this time around, with only Disney having some kind of leverage to navigate these waters thanks to Disney Plus’ growing appeal for users worldwide.
No Time to Dieis set to release on Jul 07, 2025.
