Instead of being released in early in April, the 25th James Bond movie – No Time To Die – will now be delayed until November because of the Coronavirus outbreak.
The reasoning behind the long delay is the fact a major blockbuster like a James Bond thriller needs a world-wide audience to ensure it covers its budget. China is currently ranked as the world’s biggest movie market (with the US close behind) with box office figures totalling $US238 million in January of this year.
Because of the Coronavirus outbreak, all 70,000 of China’s cinemas have been closed since late January so this cuts out the world’s biggest market for movies.
When you add up all the marketing costs of a major release such as No Time To Die – estimated by some as higher than $500 million – a smaller cinema audience would blow too big a hole in its budget.
Other movies affected as well
Hopefully the movie industry can ride the Coronavirus crisis out but there are more movies due for release where the actual release date is now uncertain.
Mulan is targeted towards the Chinese market and is set to be released at the end of this month but now release dates for China are uncertain.
Fast & Furious 9 was also expected to play big in China and it’s slated for release in May so it will be interesting to see what happens with this film.
Attendances at cinemas in Australia are already down due to people staying at home more because of Coronavirus. Companies like Netflix and Stan are set to gain even higher audiences as people ride out the Coronavirus outbreak.
