No Time To Die Becomes The Second Biggest Hollywood Movie Of 2021

"No Time to Die" has crossed a major milestone at the box office as the latest "James Bond" flick heads into its third weekend in theaters domestically. The fifth and final entry in the franchise starring Daniel Craig's 007 is now officially the second biggest American movie of the year, behind only Universal's monster hit "F9," the latest entry in the "Fast & Furious" saga, which earned $716.5 million during its theatrical run earlier this year.

As reported by Deadline, director Cary Joji Fukunaga's "Spectre" sequel has taken in $474 million worldwide to date. That includes $368 million from international markets, where the movie has been doing gangbusters business since late September. This is very good news for MGM and EON Productions, but there is still much to be determined in terms of the film's ultimate fate. To be more specific, it has to earn somewhere in the $800 million ballpark just to break even.

This is because the budget ballooned to a reported $250 million, which doesn't even account for the expensive marketing campaign. Brutal. Setting that aside for a moment, this puts "No Time to Die" above the likes of other Hollywood movies from 2021 such as "Godzilla vs. Kong" ($467.8 million), "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" ($415.3 million), and "Black Widow" ($379.5) million. It should easily cross the $500 million mark over the weekend. It is important to note that three Chinese movies have ruled the box office this year, with "Detective Chinatown 3" ($686.2 million), "The Battle at Lake Changjin" ($769 million), and "Hi, Mom" ($822 million) absolutely dominating the competition.

The question right now is, will "No Time to Die" hold well enough in the coming weeks to make enough for it to break even? That may be a tall order. This weekend sees "Dune" arriving in theaters domestically, and even though it's also streaming on HBO Max, it's poised to make a boatload of cash. Plus, "Halloween Kills" is entering its second weekend after making a killing during its opening frame. Plus, Marvel's "Eternals" is just around the corner. That having been said, divorced from the questionable business decisions that require the movie to earn such an astronomical amount to actually make money, this is good for movie theaters, and it shows "Bond" as a franchise still has a lot of gas in the tank.

The movie also stars Rami Malek, Lea Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Christoph Waltz, Ralph Fiennes, Ana de Armas, Billy Magnussen, Rory Kinnear, David Dencik, and Dali Benssalah.

"No Time to Die" is in theaters now.

In No Time To Die, Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.