This Halloween weekend conjured up more than a good scare or two as the MGM and Universal produced 25th James Bond film No Time to Die crossed $600 million at the global box office.
This final Bond outing for Daniel Craig that received really strong reviews and a mildly disappointing US opening mainly achieved this feat this past weekend due to the film opening in China. In its opening weekend, it made an estimated $28.2 million at the box office which is the third largest opening for a Hollywood title in the territory this year.
This is slightly lower than the projections for the weekend, but a contributing factor to that is the rising number of COVID cases in China over the past several days. This has been the most widespread outbreak for China since the beginning of the pandemic which has caused cinemas in places like Beijing to close.
However, in the pandemic era crossing $600 million at the box office is some cause for celebration. For a film that opened to an estimated $56 million and crossed $300 million in it’s American opening weekend, having the film consistently perform like this in its 4th week is no easy feat.
The Cary Joji Fukunaga film has remained strong in its already opened markets as it returned to number one at the UK box office this week to become the sixth highest-grossing film of all time in the market. By doing this it surpassed films like Titanic and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Adding to that, the film has made 1 million Euros in the UK for the 30th consecutive day. In the market it has made $116.4 million which is in line with both Spectre and Skyfall at the same point in time.
In other smaller markets No Time to Die has made $62 million in Germany, $26.1 million in France, and $18.4 million as of now in the Netherlands which is the biggest Universal release of all time in the territory.
These numbers can tell us many things, but arguably the biggest are in the small victories. While No Time to Die opened lower than expected in most markets, the film is holding strong long after its initial opening weekend. $600 million for a film of this size might seem small, but in a competitive month which saw films like Venom: Let There Be Carnage near the $400 million mark Globally and Dune inching closer to the $300 mark worldwide in its second weekend, James Bond is in no rush to push Craig’s 007 out the door.
Even with a reported budget of $200-300 million and this being the longest film in the franchise, No Time to Die appears to have all the time in the world to make a lasting impression at the box office.