The UK-based music and culture magazine The Face refreshes our memory on the ever-shifting film release calendar during 2020. While studios had to change release plans for virtually all films due to the turmoil created by the pandemic, this article is anchored on the saga of No Time to Die, the first major film to be postponed in the face of the mounting crisis.
The delays that the film’s distributor MGM announced – first in March for the planned 4/10 US premiere and then again in October for the rescheduled 11/20 Thanksgiving week opening – hit the industry hard. No Time to Die is the 25th installment in the wildly popular James Bond series, which has raked in $7B at the global box office over the past 47 years.
What was once unthinkable – a Hollywood blockbuster postponing its release only four weeks before the opening weekend – became commonplace throughout the year as studios scrambled to find a safe harbor for their films in the storm of 2020.