Box Office: ‘No Time To Die’ Nabs Strong $7M Monday For $62M Cume

No Time to Die earned another $6.94 million on Monday, dropping just 50% from its $13.76 million Sunday gross and bringing its domestic cume to $62.166 million in four days. Yesterday was technically Indigenous People Day, so I’m assuming that had at least something to do with the strong hold, but we’ll see if these post-debut legs bleed into “cheap ticket Tuesday.”

Nonetheless, that $6.94 million Monday is bigger than Spectre’s day-four gross partially because Veteran’s Day in 2015 fell not on a Monday but rather a Wednesday. The last James Bond flick earned $5.3 million on Monday, $7.3 million on Tuesday and then $7.9 million on Wednesday for a $90.9 million six-day cume. Veteran’s Day fell on a Monday in 2012, which is partially why Skyfall earned a boffo $11.3 million (-53% from Sunday) day-four gross to soar past $100 million in record (for 007) time. Sans inflation, No Time to Die nabbed the second-biggest day-four gross for any James Bond flick.

For perspective on inflation and frontloaded moviegoing, No Time to Die has earned in four days what Tomorrow Never Dies earned ($62.2 million from a $25 million debut) in ten days. Offhand, a 50% Sunday-to-Monday drop may be the lowest in modern Bond history, as only the above-noted Pierce Brosnan flick (which opened just before Christmas break 1997) might have had a smaller day-four drop. Titanic and Mousehunt both took 40% day-four drops, so I will assume likewise for the Pierce Brosnan/Michelle Yeoh actioner.

Regardless, a $7 million Monday gross is bigger (in terms of “pandemic era” grosses) than F9 ($6.5 million from a $70 million Fri-Sun debut) and just below Black Widow ($7.1 million/$80 million. It’s understandably below the $19.3 million Labor Day gross of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings but above the $5.7 million Monday (after a $90 million debut) of Venom: Let There Be Carnage. While both James Bond 25 and Shang-Chi 1 can chalk up some of their strength to holiday Mondays, it’s still good news.

No Time to Die earned $55.225 million over its debut weekend and another $90.4 million overseas, bringing its global total to $314.253 million. Presuming the split remains as such, the $250 million MGM/EON sequel (which Universal is distributing in most international territories) has earned around $332 million worldwide. If it legs like Skyfall (a big “if”), it’ll have $72 million domestic heading into weekend two with an over/under $380 million global cume, passing Black Widow ($379 million) and setting itself up to zoom past $400 million worldwide this Friday.

It will join Shang-Chi ($402 million) as just the second pandemic-era Hollywood flick to pass $400 million without an assist from China. To be fair, A) F9 would have still earned $513 million without its $203 million Chinese box office and B) No Time to Die will open in China on October 29. Spectre made $83 million out of $881 million in China in 2015, so it otherwise wouldn’t be a do-or-die territory. A normal rate of descent for current territories (essentially everywhere but Australia, where Spectre earned $25 million, and China) would give the film an overseas cume (sans those two) of around $440 million.

Throw in $160 million domestic and that’s $600 million before China (October 29) and Australia (November 11). Yes, a solid figure from China, and better legs than I might dare hope everywhere else, might easily push the film past $700 million and beyond. I’ve written a lot this summer about how conditionally-depressed overseas marketplaces have made China more important than it otherwise would have been. But if No Time to Die can leg out to anywhere near $700 million with only a nominal Chinese boost, that will be a sign that the entire global box office is, relatively speaking, safe for preordained blockbusters.