Audiences are turning out in force to bid farewell to Daniel Craig as James Bond.
The actor’s final outing as 007, “No Time To Die,” grossed a muscular $20 million on Thursday, pushing its two-day international haul to $22 million. That figure includes Wednesday preview results and midnight shows.
Everyone’s favorite member of her majesty’s secret service was a big hit in the U.K. and Ireland, where “No Time to Die” opened to a smashing $6.6 million. That’s a 14% improvement on the results for the previous Bond outing, “Spectre,” though it can’t match the results of “Skyfall.” It is the highest single-day result of the pandemic era.
In other key territories, “No Time to Die” grossed $2.8 million in Germany, $1.3 million in Korea, $1 million in Denmark, and $990,000 in Sweden. It also played in Mexico, Italy, Brazil, and several territories in the Middle East. “No Time to Die” will open in an additional 15 international markets in the coming days, including France (Oct. 6), Russia (Oct. 7), China (Oct. 29) and Australia (Nov. 11). It will finally debut in the U.S. on Oct. 8.
Critics have generally been fans of the film, Craig’s fifth as Bond. “No Time to Die” is directed by “True Detective” helmer Cary Joji Fukunaga and is written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Scott Z. Burns, Fukunaga and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. The returning cast include Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Léa Seydoux, Rory Kinnear, Ben Whishaw and Jeffrey Wright, while newcomers to the espionage franchise include Ana de Armas, Dali Benssalah, David Dencik, Lashana Lynch, Billy Magnussen and Rami Malek.