
The box office is making a pandemic comeback. But is that enough?
The pandemic box office has been up and down. Mostly down. It's hard to predict what movies will do well, but people are hoping that a new James Bond movie will help it bounce back. Especially since that movie moved several times to make sure it could capitalize on the moment.
Well, No Time to Die's worldwide box office sits at $314,253,007, that's an incredible number... but since the movie cost $250 million to produce and at least another $100 million to promote, there's a lot of ground left to make up.
The way movies work is that the theaters take a percentage of the profits. That means that studios take home only around 50% of the box office and have to make a profit off that. With extra costs incurred to move the film away from the worst months of the pandemic, it seems like No Time to Die will need to make somewhere between $800 and $900 million just to break even (according to Variety).
The real question is, can it do that?
We've seen October movies make money in the past, but those were years where the pandemic wasn't an issue. Recent numbers show that the people most comfortable going back to the movies are young men, who definitely have contributed to Bond's box office. But even the friendly PG-13 rating can't draw in four quadrants if not that many people are coming back to the theaters. It's not like it's a movie suitable for children, and we're also seeing older generations avoiding buying tickets due to the pandemic threat, so there might be a ceiling for how much it can make.
I don't want to be all doom and gloom. If any movie can do it, I think the newest edition of a Bond movie has the potential, but this has a lot to say about the state of the box office. People are trying to figure out how to get movies back to normal and make sure that releasing them can generate enough money for the studios to greenlight more titles.
One of the strategies is using IMAX more. It's not just about the big cameras, but you can't get IMAX at home.
“The combination of IMAX technology and this iconic franchise has proven to be a winning one at the global box office, with audiences everywhere turning out to experience Cary Fukunaga’s immersive filmmaking as it was meant to be seen,” the president of IMAX Entertainment Megan Colligan said in a statement.
Aside from that, the marketing spends and global reach of the title seem like reasons to be optimistic. Bond truly is an international franchise that's still opening across the world, so there are still millions of people to buy tickets. It hasn't opened in China yet, which is a huge market.
We'll keep you updated as the box office climbs and the movie helps studios figure out if the world is back to normal again.
Let us know what you think in the comments.
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4 Comments
The real question is: "Does No Time to Die need to break even at the box office?" The major studios make long-term industry plays by leveraging recognizable and hugely exploitable talent and Intellectual Property (IP) in conjunction with their industry partnerships. Maybe part of the financial return will come directly from IMAX and the theaters in return for leveraging the theater-specific technology to putt buts in seats again thereby boosting future projections for both. There's a long game here for sure.
October 15, 2021 at 1:56PM
Another Bond? May be we have seen too many. I don't see any novelty. Like the latest Star Wars (but Rogue One).
October 17, 2021 at 11:02AM, Edited October 17, 11:02AM
Wait! Ok! I'll definitively see a Bond Directed or scripted by Tarantino! Producers take note!
October 17, 2021 at 11:03AM
First of all, one should always take the 'budget' numbers touted by Hollywood with a huge pinch of salt. No industry ever reveals the cost of making a product, and Hollywood is no different. It's all just part of the marketing.
I'm not sure why it has to then make four times its 'budget' just to 'break even' - I get that theatres were closed during the pandemic, but is it the job of one movie to correct those losses?
October 18, 2021 at 8:30AM