Daniel Craig has hung up his dry martini, Aston Martin and Omega seamaster watch for the final time in 2021’s No Time To Die. But this doesn’t mean that he’s short of opinions about the future of the long-running film franchise.
No Time to Die made $730 million at the global box office, and was the highest-grossing film of the ‘pandemic era’ until Spider-Man: No Way Home was released. Despite this, No Time to Die still lost its studio, MGM, over $100 million.
Speaking to The Sun, Craig has said that he’s grateful that No Time to Die was seen in cinemas, instead of straight to video-on-demand or streaming; “One of the greatest things that’s happened is we got this movie into the cinema. That’s where Bond movies should be. They don’t look so good on a phone. They look great on an IMAX screen. It looks great on a 30ft screen.”
He concluded; “And they are family events. It gets the family out. As long as there’s event movies like this, then cinema’s got a chance of surviving.”
The “cinema is dead” debate has been much discussed recently, with Oscar contenders “for grown-ups” such as West Side Story and Nightmare Alley not faring well at the box office. Part of the issue is that they have been pushed out of screens by Spider-Man: No Way Home which is set to cross $1 billion at the global box office on Christmas Day.
As for advice for the next person to carry the Bond mantle; “There’s a couple things I’d say. One is don’t be sh*t. I would say you have to grab it and make it your own. I hope I’ve left it in a good place and I hope the next person can just make it fly. It’s an amazing franchise. I still think there’s a lot of stories to tell.”
The wait until the next Bond film, in whatever form it takes, could be a long one. While we anticipate our next brush with exotic locations, car chases and cool gadgets – check out our guides to the best action movies and the best thriller movies.