'No Time to Die' delay is reportedly costing 'suffering' studio MGM millions

Consecutive delays to Daniel Craig’s final James Bond movie, No Time to Die, have hit studio MGM very hard, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The studio shelled out around $250m (£193m) to produce the all-action blockbuster and $50m (£39m) on aborted marketing campaigns, with $1m (£772,000) added to the total every month just as a result of interest on borrowing.

Read more: Craig shares advice for future James Bond stars

THR suggests this was the reason behind recent rumoured overtures to streaming services about a possible big money deal to bring Bond to these platforms.

MGM was reportedly looking for as much as $800m (£618m) to flog the movie to a streamer, with Apple reportedly the only one to make an offer — albeit far lower than the asking price at between $350m (£270m) and $400m (£309m).

Watch: Action-packed trailer for No Time to Die

Hal Vogel, CEO of Vogel Capital Research, told THR that MGM was “suffering” along with other studios as a result of having so many blockbuster assets sat on the shelf.

He said: “These films are inventory. They are sitting there with no return on their investment. Even with low interest rates, the interest costs are piling up.”

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Up until now, the biggest deal made by a streaming service is the $125m (£97m) shelled out by Amazon for Eddie Murphy comedy sequel Coming 2 America, which will release later this year.

Eon boss and Bond producer Barbara Broccoli was reportedly heavily against any plan to sell James Bond to a streaming service and nixed negotiations.

No Time to Die was originally scheduled for an April 2020 release date, but was one of the first major movies to delay when coronavirus began to spread across the globe.

The film was then set for a November release, but has now been shunted to 2 April 2021 given concerns about a second wave of the virus over the winter.

Read more: Music video for No Time to Die theme

Craig has officially announced that this will be his final Bond film, pitting his take on 007 against Rami Malek’s technologically-minded villain Safin.

The cast also includes Lea Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, Ana de Armas and Christoph Waltz — as well as the usual suspects at MI6, such as Ben Whishaw and Naomie Harris — with Cary Fukunaga in the director’s chair.

Watch: Daniel Craig defends No Time to Die delay