No Time to Die, the 25th James Bond movie and final outing for Daniel Craig’s version of 007, had already changed release dates a few times before this past March rolled around, but that month saw the flick’s biggest delay yet. Due to the widespread COVID-19 pandemic, MGM and Eon Productions decided to move No Time to Die to November, but now there’s word that the movie could end up moving deep into next year.
With market analysts already predicting that it’s unlikely that movie theaters will reopen for the rest of 2020, MI6-HQ, which previously reported that there’s a huge reveal in store for No Time to Die’s epilogue, is hearing that MGM and Universal Pictures are actively considering pushing the next Bond flick to summer 2021. A decision on this will have to be made one way or another soon, as No Time to Die is approaching “the start of a 90-day marketing ramp.”
Moving No Time to Die from April to November ended up costing MGM between $30-$50 million, the bulk of that being marketing costs. So needless to say that both MGM and Universal wouldn’t want to millions of dollars on marketing an upcoming movie again, only to push it back over half a year in the middle of the advertising campaign. While United Artists Releasing is handling No Time to Die’s North American drop, Universal is overseeing the international release, which MI6-HQ states will account for approximately 75% of the global box office haul.
As things currently stand, Universal has F9 (which was originally supposed to come out this past April) and Jurassic World: Dominion lined up for April 2, 2021 and June 11, 2021, respectively. So if No Time to Die does get pushed to next summer, the studio will need to slot it in date where it won’t mess with either of those other movies’ performances. However, because Dominion had to pause its production in mid-March and only recently resumed filming, perhaps the threequel will end up being pushed back, and No Time to Die can take its June 11 spot instead.
In any case, apparently EON, MGM and Universal are not considering a VOD release for No Time to Die, so expect it to eventually play in theaters, whether take takes four months from now, a year from now or even longer. Considering that No Time to Die was a little over a month away from hitting the big screen when it was pushed to November, at least it helps that go, rather than still needing to be assembled.
Taking place five years after the events of Spectre, No Time to Die follows James Bond being drawn back into service to help track down a missing scientist, only to uncover a danger the likes of which the world has never seen before. Daniel Craig is joined by Rami Malek, Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Lashana Lynch, Naomie Harris, Ralph Fiennes, Christoph Waltz, Jeffrey Wright, Ana de Armas, Rory Kenner, Dali Benssalah, David Dencik and Billy Magnussen, among others. Cary Fukunaga directed the feature, as well as worked on the script with Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
For now, No Time to Die is still expected to arrive on November 20. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates concerning the next James Bond adventure, and be sure to browse through our 2020 release schedule to learn what other movies are supposed to hit the big screen later this year.
