The Bond Films Will Allegedly Never Not Play In Movie Theaters First

We’re living in a brave and, of course, uncertain world. That goes for movies, too. The long-held tradition — that major movies play movie theaters first, then get released to home video later — has finally been eroding. During the pandemic, some, but not all, studios threw up their hands and started doing some form of day-and-date releasing in both theaters and on streamers. But one franchise has stood its ground: The Bond movies, like the forthcoming No Time to Die, will never go the Warner Bros. route.

As per Deadline, series producer Barbara Broccoli — whose father, Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, was there from the first theatrical Bond movie, 1962’s Dr. No — commented on the fact that the franchise was semi-recently sold to Amazon. There was fear that one of the biggest and splashiest film series would wind up dumped on some streamer going forward. Not so, she says.

“We focused on making the films for theatrical release,” Broccoli told Sky. “I think that’s our position. [Amazon] certainly have told us that the films will be theatrical films in the future. And we’ll see what happens.”

Broccoli also talked about how she and her fellow producers “held their nerve” throughout the pandemic, refusing to release No Time to Die, the next installment, onto any streamers, as others studios did with their wares. Indeed, the film, the 25th in the franchise, was originally supposed to be released in April of 2020. Now it’s dropping, in America at least, on October 8, about a year and a half later.