Daniel Craig’s final “James Bond” movie didn’t bring audiences back to movie theaters in droves.
I knew this was happened last week. The advance sales for “No Time to Die” weren’t very encouraging. You could see it on the maps of movie theater seats. IMAX looked pretty full for the first couple of days but regular theaters in 2D were mostly empty.
The fact is, people are not comfortable going to theaters. Masks are one problem. But audiences are also used to staying home now, watching movies on the TV screens, not paying for baby sitters and expensive popcorn. These are issues not going away fast.
“No Time to Die” took in just over $56 million. It runs long, three hours, so there are fewer shows per day. Cineplexes are making up for this by showing it on many screens since they don’t have that many new releases. But next Friday they’re going to cut back to a normal number of showings, and “No Time to Die” will slow down.
PS The release of the film didn’t do anything to revive the theme song by Billie Eilish. Originally released in February 2020 and not much of a hit, the languid record sold just 6,100 copies last week all streaming, almost no downloads. The producers should have replaced it during the hiatus or asked for a livelier remix.
