North Carolina, Oct. 11 (U.S.): After more than 18 months of pandemic delays, No Time to Die has been launched on Target. The final James Bond movie in the Daniel Craig era brought in $56 million from 4,407 North American theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday, easily taking the top spot.
It didn’t break any pandemic or 007 records, but it didn’t quite live up to it and is actually the fourth best opening in the 25-film series. James Bond is not Marvel when it comes to opening weekends. Bond has always had an older audience that’s usually less inclined on the first weekend. In fact, Bond’s best opening didn’t even make $100 million. The Associated Press (AP) reported that it was $88.4 million for the movie “Skyfall” that debuted in 2012.
“It’s been a long time since this movie has been on the big screen,” said Eric Loomis, head of distribution at United Artists Releasing. “It’s right where we thought it would be, and in the right place the tracking predicted.”
Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, this part co-starred with: Lea Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Naomi Harris, Ana de Armas, Lashana Lynch and Rami Malek. Both critics and audiences responded positively (84% on Rotten Tomatoes and A- CinemaScore). According to exit data, the audience was overwhelmingly male (64%) and over 35 (57%).
“I’m really comfortable having it in movie theaters and people getting a chance to see it,” Craig said Sunday of Charlotte Motor Speedway. “I’m incredibly proud of him, because of all the movies, but I was so desperate that people would go see this in a big group, like coming here today. That’s what we do. We’re social beings, we need to come together.”
Craig was the honorary initiator of the NASCAR playoff race where he waved the green flag.
Unlike many films released during the pandemic, a streaming or hybrid release was never a consideration for No Time to Die. In addition to being the longest-running Bond movie ever at 2 hours and 43 minutes, it was also an expensive film with a production budget of around $250 million. This does not include marketing costs, which are said to have exceeded $100 million.
“Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli are staunch believers in theatrical experience,” Loomis said of the film’s producers. “They made us a great movie and together we put it on the stage. It was very important to us, to them and to the theater owners. And when you see these kind of results, it is very satisfying.”
According to North American distributor United Artists Releasing, 25% of moviegoers returned to theaters for the first time in 18 months this weekend, suggesting the movie will have legs.
“I thought this was a very important statistic,” Loomis added.
He said he gets calls from theater owners across the country saying audiences were regularly clapping at the end of the movie.
But the profitability of Bond films eventually returns to global, which in Craig’s era represented more than 70% of the global total. “No Time to Die” was released overseas last weekend, with Universal taping some territories and other MGM, and as of Sunday, estimated global earnings at more than $313.3 million.
“This movie became larger than life because it was really the first high-profile movie to come out of its release date when the pandemic started,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at ComScore. “For Bond to still be attractive, viable and relevant 60 years later is absolutely amazing.”
In second place was last week’s first movie “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” which is down 64% from its record $90 million release and grossed $32 million in its second weekend. The Sony movie, which is also shown exclusively in cinemas, has grossed $185.6 million worldwide so far.
Aside from Bond, it was a relatively quiet week at the box office. Other newcomers include A24-directed Icelandic movie “Lamb,” which took in $1 million from just 583 theaters, and “Diamond” on Bleeker Street, which opened on four screens at $14,457.
Meanwhile, Disney expects to exceed $2 billion in global box office revenue in 2021 on Monday. And the momentum should continue through October, with “Halloween Kills” and “Dune,” which have already made $117 million on the horizon. .
“A year ago we were in dire straits,” Dergarabedian said. “The year so far is up 32% from last year. We’re making progress here and we’ve got a lot of big movies on the way. The industry is rocking, and ‘Halloween Kills’ could be a lot bigger than anyone expected.”
Estimated ticket sales Friday through Sunday in US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final local numbers will be published on Monday.
1. “No Time to Die” $56 million.
2. “Poison: Let There Be Carnage,” $32 million.
3. “The Addams Family 2”, $10 million.
4. “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”, $4.2 million.
5. “Many Saints in Newark” $1.5 million.
6. “Free Guy” $1.3 million.
7. “Lamb” $1 million.
8. “Dear Evan Hansen,” $1 million.
9. “Candyman” $700,000.
10. “Jungle Cruise” $214,000.
RAE