James Bond: No Time To Die wide cinema release in DOUBT as Universal cinema feud heightens

This week has seen a savage attack by both Odeon and Cineworld cinemas on Universal Pictures. In open letters, the chains have informed the Hollywood studio they will not screen their movies if they keep to their newly announced business strategy of releasing films on video-on-demand simultaneously or very near to their cinema dates. James Bond fans are particularly concerned by the news considering that Universal are distributing Daniel Craig’s latest 007 outing No Time To Die.

The new Bond movie has already been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic from April 2 to November 12 in the UK.

And with the reopening of cinemas uncertain, fans have been wondering if this could be pushed back to 2021, or even see No Time To Die released on VOD instead or simultaneously with movie theatres.

As it stands, Odeon and Cineworld are telling Universal that they will not show No Time To Die in the cinemas.

If nothing changes, this would mean a limited cinema release to chains willing to show the studio’s films.

READ MORE: Odeon cinemas REFUSE to show Universal movies when they reopen

Having done the maths, the Bond news site worked out that if No Time To Die is released on PVOD at $19.99 worldwide, it would have to be bought by 34.4 million people to earn the same amount of money.

Trolls World Tour skipped cinemas entirely due to the pandemic and Universal took the gamble of releasing it straight to PVOD and boy did it pay off.

With 5 million sales in just three weeks, the sequel’s profits aren’t far off the original film, which went to movie theatres first.

It was Trolls World Tour’s success which sparked Universal’s business strategy move that has caused this feud with cinema chains.