No Time to Die, the Bond Franchise and Global Hollywood: Film Release Patterns during Covid-19

Abstract

No Time to Die ( NTTD), the 25th entry in the Bond franchise, became central to the plight of theatrical film exhibition during the Covid-19 pandemic. Produced as one of MGM’s and the wider industry’s biggest commodities, a tent-pole film, it was due to be released in April 2020. One of the first big film casualties of the global lockdowns, NTTD endured several delays before finally reaching cinemas in September 2021. The Bond franchise and the disruption to NTTD’s release are symptomatic of developments in global Hollywood and the entertainment business. Covid-19 had a huge impact on film exhibition and provoked all sorts of radical experiments by the Hollywood studios with online releases for blockbuster films that would previously have been key players at the global box office. As EON and MGM held out for a theatrical release, the hype around the film in the UK and the USA suggested it might single-handedly save the film exhibition business and finally bring audiences back to cinemas. Indeed, its eventual success at the box office suggested to some that Covid, streaming platforms and the home entertainment business had not after all killed off cinemagoing. But the writing was on the wall, and the extended periods of lockdown in the UK, the USA and elsewhere allowed the digital disruptors to establish an even firmer foothold. Amazon’s purchase of MGM and the Bond IP are prime indicators of that shift.