'No Time to Die' scores $119 million in international debut

The latest James Bond film won’t arrive in the U.S. until Friday, but it’s already making waves internationally.

“No Time to Die” scored an estimated $119.1 million in international ticket sales over the weekend, making it the first pandemic-era Motion Picture Association title to top $100 million in an overseas debut without China. The fifth and final James Bond film featuring Daniel Craig will arrive in China October 29.

The film had the best opening weekend results for a James Bond film in 24 countries, including Japan, Hong Kong and Germany, and helped fuel the best pandemic-era opening weekends in 21 countries, including the United Kingdom.

These are welcome results for MGM and Universal, who are co-distributors of the film. “No Time to Die” was long-delayed during the pandemic as the studios waited for signs that moviegoers were ready to return to cinemas.

“No Time to Die” was first pushed from its November 2019 release when Danny Boyle, who was supposed to write and direct the film, left the project. It bounced between a few dates before landing a release in April 2020. With movie theaters shut around the world during the pandemic, it was first pushed to November 2020 and then to April 2021 before it settled on an October date.

“The pent-up demand built over a six-year wait since ‘Spectre,’ plus the significance of the end of the Craig era as Bond, has made this required viewing for even for the most casual 007 fan,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “For the hard-core aficionados, ‘No Time to Die’ represents a major milestone and a true not to be missed cinematic event.”

Advanced ticket sales internationally and domestically have given box office analysts hope for a solid theatrical run. Especially, because “No Time to Die” is only available in theaters.

Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal and CNBC. Universal is releasing “No Time To Die” internationally while Amazon-owned MGM handles the domestic release.