No Time To Die springs into action with the best Bond preview start at $6.3 million

No Time To Die is finally here and if its Thursday preview numbers are any indication, it could be headed to a healthy weekend at the box office.

The latest Bond entry grossed $6.3 million from Thursday night previews that began at 4:00 PM. This makes it the best Bond domestic preview ever and it’s actually 19% ahead of Spectre’s $5.25 million start from six years ago. Any gains made during the pandemic era box office need to be viewed as wins and this is certainly a win for Daniel Craig’s final outing as 007.

The figure also exceeds the preview nights of previous Daniel Craig 007 movies as, per Deadline, Skyfall grossed $4.6 million off midnight shows and Quantum of Solace took in $2.5 million from showings starting at 8:00 PM. Now, No Time To Die’s preview numbers are lower than that of last week’s tentpole winner, Venom: Let There Be Carnage ($11.6 million) but Venom does skew more broadly with Hispanic and Latino audiences and it also skews younger. No matter how much action is in a Bond film, the franchise has always skewed older and that is the only obstacle it faces during its pandemic run at the box office. As of now, No Time To Die is tracking in the $55-60 million range for its opening but it could overindex if its core demographic shows up in a big way.

Advanced ticket sales on Fandango show that its pre-sale tickets are the best ever for a Bond film on the domestic front and they are even ahead of sales for Venom: Let There Be Carnage. This could show that No Time To Die is headed for a record-breaking opening for a Bond film in the States. Previous Daniel Craig Bond openings are the franchise record for Skyfall ($88.3 million), Spectre ($70.4 million), Quantum of Solace ($67.5 million), and Casino Royale ($40.8 million).

How well do YOU think No Time To Die will do at this weekend’s box office?