News has just broken that the 25th James Bond film ‘No Time to Die’ (a very ironic title to be the first film to delay due to a virus) will move from its imminent April release date to November 2020 due to the huge disruption the corona virus is having worldwide.
The Bond franchise relies heavily on overseas box office, and with cinemas in China and places all over Europe either closed or almost empty anyway due to the virus (with seemingly worse to come), then it makes sense this film would take the costly and risky decision to move.
Another factor to consider is what the plot of this film is, could it potentially be that our villain was due to unleash some deadly virus on the world, which would not be a good look for a film right now?
However, the interesting thing will now be what films follow its lead. The virus is likely to get worse over the coming months leading to the summer, and therefore is set to hugely disrupt the industry.
I believe the films that most rely on China and other overseas markets in coming time are Mulan, Black Widow, F9: The Fast Saga among others.
Especially for Mulan and F9, a big release in China is essentially what is separating those films from being classed as success or failure. Maybe it is too late to move Mulan, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if F9 and many other films followed Bond’s lead.
It’s going to be a fascinating and potentially terrifying next few months, but I will keep up to date and cover it as soon as anything changes.
Howe's World of Film and TV 