Coronavirus outbreak in China may affect NTTD

No Time to Die teaser poster

The coronavirus epidemic, which has caused more than 1,600 deaths in China, may have an effect on No Time to Die, The Sunday Times said.

About 70,000 theater screens in China have been closed because of the epidemic, The Sunday Times said. Authorities from multiple countries are fighting to contain the epidemic.

“No Time to Die, due for UK release on April 3, will be Daniel Craig’s last as 007 and was expected to be the highest-grossing Bond movie to date,” The Sunday Times said. “But with revenue from the Chinese market in doubt this is now seen as unlikely.”

Skyfall, released in 2012, had a global box office of $1.1 billion and is the top-grossing Bond film unadjusted for inflation.

China is the world’s second-largest movie market. Studios look to China for a major part of their global revenue from major films. The Screen Rant website listed 15 examples where movies made changes to ensure a China release.

UPDATE (10:10 p.m., New York time): China had a box office of $59.3 million for Skyfall, according to Box Office Mojo. China accounted for $83.5 million for 2015’s SPECTRE, which had a global box office of $880.7 million.

Without China, Skyfall was still a billion-dollar movie. Without China, SPECTRE would have fallen short of $800 million. China provided a decent amount of the box office for both films but SPECTRE was more reliant on China than Skyfall was.

UPDATE II (3:55 p.m., Feb. 16): Deadline: Hollywood published a story. No Time to Die’s China premiere and publicity tour have been scrapped. The story notes that Chinese theaters are closed indefinitely while the country tries to contain the disease. On Feb. 15, CNBC had a story that U.S. officials don’t trust China to provide accurate information about the epidemic.

Ana de Armas speaks in (another) new NTTD spot

No Time to Die is out with yet another new spot, this time the viewer finally gets to hear Ana de Armas’ speak.

In the 30-second commercial, de Armas’ Paloma character chides Daniel Craig’s James Bond for tardiness. “You’re late,” she says when the characters meet.

This marks the second time a woman character has put Craig/Bond in his place. In the first trailer, Lashana Lynch’s Nomi threatened to shoot him in the knee (“the one that works”) if Bond didn’t stay out of her way.

Also, M (Ralph Fiennes) is heard from a bit more. In a previous spot, he said, “Come on, Bond.” Now it’s, “Come on, Bond, where the hell are you?”

The spot is below if you want to view it for yourself.