Cinemas react by closing as Bond flick delayed again - COVID-19 the villain
Published:Wednesday | October 7, 2020 | 12:10 AMYasmine Peru/Senior Gleaner Writer
Amid suggestions from annoyed fans that COVID-19 should just be named the next villain, MGM, Universal announced that the highly anticipated Bond flick, No Time To Die, would not be released on November 25 as promised.
A statement posted to their social media account on Friday explained, “MGM, Universal and Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli announced the release of No Time To Die, the 25th film in the James Bond series, will be delayed until April 2, 2021 in order to be seen by a worldwide theatrical audience. We understand the delay will be disappointing to our fans, but we now look forward to sharing No Time To Die next year.”
Fans can hardly be blamed for the amount of cynicism which greeted this announcement, which came at the end of a week which saw the producers zooming into high gear as they hyped up the imminent release with creative podcasts, exciting trailers and slick music videos. Literally hours before the disappointing announcement, fans were again teased with the release of a DHL advertisement, which looked like an intense car-chase scene straight out of a 007 flick. “A courier takes on an important assignment…@dhl_global are the Official Logistics Partner of #NoTimeToDie. In cinemas November,” the video clip was captioned.
No Time To Die, which had originally been set to hit theatres April 2020, was pushed back because of the coronavirus pandemic. And, joining the Bond movie on the delayed chart last week was the big earner Fast and Furious 9 ( F9), which has a new release date of May 28, 2021. The Hollywood Reporter, in a March 2020 article, stated that the 2020 movie was delayed to April 3, 2021. But that would have seen it being released one day after No Time To Die and would cause a conundrum at the box office, especially since Universal is distributing the film internationally. It came as no surprise, therefore, that hours after the No Time To Die announcement, a new date for the release of F9 was revealed. As disappointing as that delay was, however, it was the Bond flick delay that seems to have sounded a death knell for cinemas for 2020.
REACTION TO CLOSURE
Upon the revelation of the new date, cinemagoers were quick to react with remarks like, “Pushing this film back has probably put the final nail in the coffin for cinemas this year.” By Monday, it was officially announced that Cineworld, which is the largest in the UK and second-largest in the world behind Chinese firm Wanda Cinemas, plans to shut all 128 of its UK and Ireland cinemas putting 5,500 jobs at risk, The Guardian reported. Cineworld, which is also the parent company of Regal, announced that it will be suspending operations of its 536 Regal theatres across the US as of Thursday, October 8. The closures will impact approximately 40,000 employees across the US. Theatres were reportedly counting on the latest 007 instalment to drive lacklustre ticket sales. Forbes notes that worldwide, the James Bond movies have grossed over $7 billion and that makes the 007 series the third-highest grossing franchise of all time behind Marvel and Star Wars.
Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, stated, “We are like a grocery shop that doesn’t have vegetables, fruit, meat. We cannot operate for a long time without a product.”
Cineworld reported a loss of $1.6 billion in the first half of 2020. The closure is said to be indefinite, and reopening will depend upon the release schedule set by the studios, according to Regal.
“Regal will continue to monitor the situation closely and will communicate any future plans to resume operations at the appropriate time, when key markets have more concrete guidance on their reopening status and, in turn, studios are able to bring their pipeline of major releases back to the big screen,” the company says in a statement.
Last week, Palace Amusement announced the closure of two of its cinemas, Palace Cineplex in Liguanea, Kingston, and Palace Multiplex in Fairview, Montego Bay, effective Wednesday, September 30. Melanie Graham, marketing manager, said, “The company can no longer manage to sustain Cineplex and Multiplex at the current low level of patronage. This move to close is in the best interest of the company, its staff, shareholders and stakeholders.”