LOS ANGELES (US) – Producers of the James Bond flick “No Time to Die” said on Thursday that its global release has been rescheduled from April to October. This comes as another setback for movie theatres trying to woo back patrons after being steamrolled by the pandemic.
Its debut date is Oct. 8, said an announcement on the James Bond website and Twitter feed.
“No Time to Die,” from MGM and Comcast Corp’s Universal Pictures, was originally slotted to hit the big screen in April 2020 before moving to November 2020 and then April 2021.
Made at a cost of $200 million, the movie is the last in the franchise where Daniel Craig appears as British agent 007.
Owners of movie halls expected the Bond flick to kickstart moviegoing after the pandemic devastated the movie industry last year. Ticket sales in the US and Canada shrivelled by 80%. That affected independent theatres and big chains such as AMC Entertainment, Cineworld Plc and Cinemark Holdings Inc.
In the wake of the virus still rampant in many areas such as Los Angeles market, Hollywood studios is rather reluctant to release their big-budget movies in theatres. Many cinemas are still closed and the ones that are open allow patrons after strictly enforcing social distancing and other measures to keep infections at bay.
The Bond franchise is one of the most attractive in the movie industry with “Spectre” releasing in 2015 raking in $880 million at the box office across the world and “Skyfall” in 2012 garnering more than $1 billion globally.
The next closely watched movie is “Black Widow” from Walt Disney Co’s Marvel Studios, and it is slated to be released in theatres on May 7.