No Time to Die is in a box. The question is whether it can claw its way out.
It’s an expensive movie: Because of U.K. regulatory filings by B25 Ltd., a subsidiary of Eon Productions, we know the production budget was at least 199.47 million British pounds (more than $240 million). That doesn’t include marketing costs.
The movie’s revenue streams are limited: No Time to Die was made before the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). But it is to be distributed in a COVID-19 world.
The conventional thinking is a big blockbuster like No Time to Die needs both a theatrical release and a healthy digital/home video release.
In a COVID-19 world, the theatrical portion of that equation has a lot of uncertainty. Theaters, when they open, won’t be able to sell all their seats.
Assuming No Time to Die makes its current November release date, how many seats can theaters sell? 25 percent? 50 percent? At this point, much higher than that doesn’t seem possible.
For that matter, how comfortable will people feel going back to movie theaters, even if they could sell all their seats?
At the same time, video on demand alone doesn’t seem to be the way for a studio (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has been financing the film) to get its money back, much less generate the profit it’s counting on.
In the U.S., all 50 states are trying to revive their economies. Other countries are trying to do so as well. But it appears theaters may be among the last businesses to open up to the extent they operated before COVID-19.
No Tie to Die was made during the existence of one world. It will be shown (eventually) in the existence of another.
That’s the box No Time to Die is in. How it fares remains to be seen.
Filed under: James Bond Films | Tagged: Bond 25, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, No Time to Die | 4 Comments »