No Time To Die Delayed Yet Again – Now To October 2021
The release date for No Time To Die has once again been delayed, this time moving from April 2021 to October 2021. I don’t think this announcement surprised Bond Fans.
It shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise to James Bond fans when it was officially announced that the release date for No Time To Die would be delayed yet again.
Fans must be getting used to the consistent shuffling of the release for the film by now. No Time To Die has had five release dates so far – November 2019, February 2020, April 2020, November 2020, April 2021 and NOW we can add November 2021 to that ever growing list of dates.
I’ve gotten so numb to all this by now I barely can scrape up any emotion about the delays anymore. Hearing of the latest announced release delay didn’t surprise me at all. At this point I’ll be surprised when the film actually does get released. That I’ll consider a shocker.
With all the delays the film has experienced it conceivably answer the question – just how many versions of posters and trailers can one film possibly have???
After the last delay was announced Craig appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in October 2020 and said, “We want to release the movie at the same time all around the world and this isn’t the right time. So fingers crossed April 2nd is going to be our date.”
It turned out April 2021 was not ‘their date’.
This latest announced date move shouldn’t have caught fans off guard. Rumors and rumblings started about the films release date being changed started to pop up in early January. Word started to spread from a Dutch exhibitor who said he was informed the date for the film was changing.
Then stories came out of No Time To Die‘s promotional partners allegedly receiving word to put their promotional tie-ins and marketing on hold for awhile longer.
Typically promotion for a film would start to ramp up a few months before its release. The marketing has started and stopped so many times for No Time To Die sponsors are probably at their wits end with this movie.
Some companies have already released their wares and tie-ins for the movie. Billie Ellish’s theme song has come out a long time ago and got nominated for a Grammy – and the film never even came out! Things really have not coincided the way everyone must’ve planned.
If Heineken holds off on selling their 007 beer any longer it will go flat!
So there’s been a recent silence for hyping up No Time To Die this time has been quite noticeable, and I think kind of expected. I really think they should consider not try to commit to a specific release date at this point and simply say No Time To Die is ‘Coming Soon’ or its ‘Date To Be Determined’, just to play it safe.
Thanks to the pandemic there’s really not much else to talk about in Bond related news other than No Time To Die’s pattern of release delays. We can discuss star Ana de Armas has broken up with beau Ben Affleck – if you care about that type of Hollywood gossip.
It’s not just James Bond, MGM and EON who are getting headaches from the repercussions caused by the pandemic. It’s expected that most high profile films scheduled for a spring release will eventually announce delays. As one studio executive has stated, “I think everything substantive between now and Top Gun: Maverick in early July will move. It’s a mess.”
All of Hollywood is still contending with the problems of closed theaters and have been trying to figure out ways to navigate their way through it. It’s likely films set to be released in the first half of the year, at least through the summer will shift.
In December, Warner Bros. did a dual release of a theatrical and a streaming release on HBO Max for Wonder Woman 1984. Fans at least got to see the highly anticipated film for Christmastime. Whether they felt it was worth the long wait is another story. Personally, I thought the movie stunk.
Warner’s has even gone so far as scheduling their films to be released in this fashion throughout 2021. They’re not even pinning any hopes on managing any straight theatrical releases for the entire year.
The thought was that perhaps No Time To Die would take that route and stick with its April release date by doing a dual streaming and theatrical release.
MGM supposedly screened the film for the possibility of getting a streaming release. However, their asking price of $600 million for the rights to stream it was too much for streamers. Steaming services allegedly weren’t even willing to pay half the price for No Time To Die that MGM was asking for.
It’s quite a pickle their in. According to one recent report, MGM had taken out a loan for No Time To Die and it’s costing them one million dollars in interest every month until the film gets released. The film reportedly has a budget of $250 million, with the millions that have gotten drained already, it’s understandable why MGM fears further delays will make the film not be profitable and they’ll be hit with huge losses from it.
It kind of makes sense why, if they decided to go the streaming route, they were asking for such high price tag for it. They’re looking to make some money on this thing, but it doesn’t appear anyone is biting in the streaming arena.
It’s also worth considering the added price tag for the promotional spots, advertising, marketing, that Super Bowl spot they paid big money for last year that must be adding up. There has been a lot of money spent already to promote this flick for release dates that have vanished. It has all been a wash out. Is there a chance No Time To Die could actually lose money? Is that possible???
Barbara Broccoli stated she wants Bond to be seen on the big screen. That’s cool! A big theatrical experience has been the hallmark to the Bond series, plus it would most likely earn more money that way than with a streaming deal. But with the world still at a halt with the pandemic and so many theaters remaining closed, the big-screen return of 007 will continue to take time. How much time, is anyone’s guess.
Will MGM be willing to hold out a little longer for a theatrical release? Will Broccoli throw up her hands and acquiesce to a streaming release? Will the November 2021 release date stick? Will audiences show up and make No Time To Die a big hit and make up for all the losses it has incurred so far?
The vaccination rollout, businesses getting back on their feet, audiences feeling safe enough to sit in crowded theaters again, studios willing to venture into the post-pandemic world with their products, there is a lot of variables. By the way things are looking at the moment, it certainly doesn’t look like things will clear up much better by April.
I think it’s also worth noting at this point the time between the release of Spectre and No Time To Die is just about equal to the longest delay the Bond series has had – six years between films. It was the hiatus between Licence To Kill (1989) and GoldenEye (1995) that has been the record holder. Bond Fans, we’re about to reach that point again.
I think technically this delay is still a few months less than that ’89-’95 pause, but somehow this time it feels longer.
That wait between Timothy Dalton’s departure and Pierce Brosnan’s debut didn’t seem this long in comparison from my memory. I think it had as much to do with so little that was going on during those six years. Mainly the hiatus was due to legal issues. Things were relatively quiet for most of that gap. Fans would occasionally read about rumored candidates to be the new 007, but that was about it.
When Bond did finally return six years later the series had been overhauled with a new actor and brought into a new era. That long interval felt like a rebirth of the series took place.
While this time, fans are simply waiting to see Craig’s final performance as James Bond and the wrap up to the supposed big Spectre story that was laid out six years earlier. Stories about production troubles, injuries, directors changing, rumored new Bond candidates being lined up, sound byte interviews and a steady stream of announced release dates and inevitable delays of them. This delay has become a seemingly endless full blown soap opera.
Maybe it’s me, but this feel likes much more of an ordeal to get to see Craig’s farewell Bond film than it was to see Brosnan’s first.
Do I think the release date of October 2021 will stick? I have no idea.
The situation the world is in right now is so topsy turvy there’s no way to predict what will happen one month from now let alone nine months.
I feel pretty confident that movie theaters will once again open at some point. They’re not going to go extinct. Audiences will return to watch stories flicker on movie screens one day, but I can’t tell you when that might happen. We’ll just have to wait and see.
So, Bond Fans are left once again resetting their clocks awaiting to see Daniel Craig’s final outing as 007. As of now it will be October 2021….we’ll see if that changes.
In the meantime, did you hear that Ana de Armas got a new haircut? I think it looks smashing!
Please enjoy – The No Time To Die Release Date Shooting Gallery!
Here’s a collection of the trailers for No Time To Die if you want to watch them again. At this point the trailers have shown so much of the film I’m not sure how they can possibly make any newer trailers without giving any more away from the film. I wonder if they’ve exhausted all the clips they planned on using already with so many multiple trailers and they’re now left thinking, “Is there any new stuff we can include in the next one?”
