The James Bond film No Time to Die has been delayed for the third time because of the coronavirus pandemic and is now slated for release on Oct. 8, 2021.
The 25th film in the Bond franchise was scheduled to hit theaters on April 10, 2020, after a March premiere in London. But when the coronavirus pandemic led to widespread lockdowns across the globe, shuttering restaurants, movie theaters, and other venues that rely on large in-person gatherings, MGM decided to delay the film until Nov. 25.
NO TIME TO DIE 8 October 2021 pic.twitter.com/HZlNG5kz8t
— James Bond (@007) January 22, 2021
But by November, the United States was reporting nearly four times as many COVID-19 cases as it had during the first phase of the pandemic, and the studio again decided to delay until April 2021.
Fans expressed their displeasure with the news on Twitter.
“At this rate, we’re all going to die of old age before seeing it,” British television personality Piers Morgan tweeted. “Do you think James Bond would dither, delay & run scared like this? Put it out on VOD, charge £20, and give us all a bit of much-needed escapism.”
At this rate, we’re all going to die of old age before seeing it.
Do you think James Bond would dither, delay & run scared like this? Put it out on VOD, charge £20, and give us all a bit of much-needed escapism. https://t.co/QZH6XaQstV— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) January 22, 2021
The studio’s third delay in releasing the film is a clear indication that the film and theater industry faces a long and difficult recovery — domestic box-office revenue collapsed more than $9 billion compared to prior years, from $11.4 billion in 2019 to just $2.2 billion last year.
In 2019, nine of the top 10 box office hits grossed more than $1 trillion internationally. The top earner, Avengers: Endgame, grossed nearly $2.8 trillion. The highest-grossing film for 2020 was the Chinese movie The Eight Hundred, at roughly $461 billion. Warner Bros.’s Tenet was expected to be a box-office hit this summer, but it brought in only $363 million.
As people stayed home and theaters were forced to shut down, studios had to reposition in order to get their content to viewers. Several movies this year that were expected to be box-office hits were delayed or streamed digitally instead. Early in the pandemic, Universal Studios released Trolls World Tour to rent digitally the same day that it hit box offices, and other studios followed suit. Last month, Warner Bros. announced it would release all of its 2021 films for at-home streaming at the same time they’re playing in theaters.
As another sign of the shifting film landscape, Netflix announced this month that it would release 70 films in 2021 — promising at least one new film every week. The total is more than double the number of films the streaming service slated last year as Netflix hopes to capitalize on a hobbled theater industry.
