By the standards of the pandemic era, an opening weekend of $56 million is nothing to be sniffed at, but many insiders and analysts were predicting that No Time to Die would fly much higher. The number is more in line with MGM’s most conservative estimates, rather than the talk Venom: Let There Be Carnage‘s $90 million benchmark was in danger after just seven days.
Lets look at the positives first of all; the 25th installment in the James Bond franchise has just scored the sixth-highest first frame since the end of 2019 behind the Venom sequel, Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Fast & Furious 9 and Bad Boys for Life, so that’s a huge win.
Secondly, Daniel Craig’s final outing under the tux has also sailed past $300 million globally in ten days, and it’s still tracking way ahead of projections overseas. However, there might be a tinge of disappointment on the studio’s part when all of the buzz had No Time to Die debuting to a much more robust number than it actually has.
The 163-minute running time was surely a factor, and there’s been speculation that older audiences are less inclined to return to theaters in their droves. As per Deadline, 34% of No Time to Die‘s audience hailed from the coveted 18-34 demographic, compared to 64% for Venom: Let There Be Carnage.
It’s also the fourth highest-grossing opening weekend for the Bond series and the fifth largest in October history, so there’s plenty of reasons to be upbeat about the movie’s performance even if it’s fallen below expectations.
