(UTV | COLOMBO) – While Marvel Comics-inspired films like “Shang-Chi” and “Venom” have overperformed in recent weeks, it looks like blockbusters outside the comic book genre may face a tougher battle.
The much-hyped James Bond film “No Time to Die” hit the North American box office this weekend and pulled in an estimated opening of $56 million.
That’s the fifth-best domestic opening of the pandemic era but comes in shy of the earlier projections of $60 million or higher that were thrown about last week after the film’s strong performance in Europe. It’s also down from the $88 million of “Skyfall,” the $70 million of “Spectre” and the $67.5 million of “Quantum of Solace”.
The slight shortfall is being seen as due to limited sessions by the film’s 163-minute runtime and the Bond franchise skewing decidedly older than Marvel films (Bond’s audience was 36% over 45 compared to Venom’s 9%). Audiences over 35, especially women, are proving hard to lure back to cinemas and aren’t nearly back to pre-pandemic levels yet.
Bond has also always earned most of its money internationally with U.S. domestic runs relatively tame compared to some other franchises. Globally the film pulled in an astonishing $145.5 million and now stands at $313.3 million worldwide so far. That’s without big Bond markets like China and Australia who both won’t get it for a few weeks yet.
Critics reviews have been good but divided, tending to skew more positive by those who aren’t pre-Craig era Bond fans. U.S. critics also seem to be more up on this ’emotional’ Bond film than overseas critics. The film’s CinemaScore stands at A- which is the same that “Spectre” received.
Last week’s top earner “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” opened to a pandemic-era best of $90 million last weekend, but fell pretty sharply by 65% to $32 million in its second outing. Still, it has a strong domestic total of $141.7 million so far. “The Addams Family 2” came in third with $10 million.
Also of note, “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” crossed the $400 million mark worldwide while “Dune” sits at a $117.1 million total so far from a limited international opening.