Daniel Craig’s final Bond movie, No Time to Die, made a strong start since opening on Thursday according to early box office numbers – though it’s yet to translate into positivity toward Cineworld Group PLC (LSE:CINE).
No Time To Die netted up to GBP5mln for the first day, according to reports, which is around 13% better than the last Bond movie Spectre, in 2015.
Changing hands at 77.56p, Cineworld shares were down around 1.49% in Friday afternoon’s deals.
Thursday’s opening brought to a close an eighteen-month wait and the release has been closely watched as a bellwether for the recovery of cinema from the pandemic and the lockdowns.
Cinema operators in earlier September said that pre-sales were strong and that anticipation for the movie was high.
Previously, in a trading update, Cineworld told investors it expected “strong trading” in its fourth-quarter amid pent-up demand.
In an outlook statement accompanying its first-half results, the company said the recovery will be supported by a “strong film slate” and its actions during the pandemic meant it is “well placed for the future”.
In the financials for the six months to June 30, which included around four months of closures due to lockdown, Cineworld reported a pre-tax loss of US$576.4mln, narrowed from a US$1.64bn loss a year ago, while revenues dropped to US$292.8mln from US$712.4mln.
