What do you think about the NTTD release date?

WB moves back DUNE, expects Bond to stay too strong.

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In other words

covid blah, blah, blah

Which Iā€™ve seen as an attitude to a disgusting degree

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Not directly related to NO TIME TO DIEā€™s release date but perhaps interesting:

Marvelā€™s BLACK WIDOW will stream from release date 9. July for a VIP access fee of ā‚¬ 21.99 on Disney+.

From 06. October it will be available to all Disney+ subscriptions.

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Additionally, Fast 9 brought in over $70 mil in its opening weekend. Maybe going to the movies isnā€™t as dead as we previously thought.

There is no doubt a huge pent up demand for crowd entertainment in the ā€˜realā€™ world, just look at the packed stands of the UEFA Cup right now. People definitely still want to have that shared experience of the football stadium, for concerts and festivals.

But that is perhaps not so surprising after long months of very little fun in public. A bit like the news about fabulous growth in retail footfall and sales - what would we expect when shops open again after months of forced closure? People stopped buying altogether? Of course thereā€™s a huge increase, just as people will want to catch up with everything else, from partying to going to the movies.

How it will all shape up in the coming months depends. The pandemic is far from over while the actual willingness - ability? - to learn from past mistakes seems somewhat limited.

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Somewhat? :rofl:

I really hope that we as a whole get our act together come the fall. Things are going in a good direction right now in the places that are lucky to have sufficient access to the vaccines, but given the current amount of people who are unvaccinated, things could very well change in the fall with surges in the Delta variant and potentially other variants that have yet to emerge, assuming we continue to give it a chance to continue mutating by not having as many people vaccinated as humanly possible.

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I agree wholeheartedly.

I am deeply disturbed how deeply rooted the distrust in vaccines is right now. People I know for ages (and have always been very reasonable and fact-oriented) have quickly withdrawn to ā€žI just feel itā€˜s not for meā€œ or ā€žI have read on the internet (but cannot point to any actual article)ā€œ or even question whether they will get the necessary second dose because it interferes with their vacation plans.

As for movie attendance: with the surge of the Delta variant it will be a very different situation in the fall and winter. I will hopefully be fully vaccinated by then, but I do detect a huge fear in myself to expose myself to large crowds. Maybe that will pass once I experience more of those situations without being infected. But I donā€™t think that box office news will stay euphoric as they are meant to sound right now.

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Well, I would have to admit to still being hesitant about the vaccine even though Iā€™ve gotten it and been ā€œfully vaccinatedā€ for a couple of months now. It has only slightly changed how I go about my business. I basically treat it as though it doesnā€™t work and have it there as a backstop in case the prevention strategies Iā€™ve been using since March 2020 fail on me at some point. I would imagine that I will be in this routine for the forseeable future. I very much doubt I will ever return to large crowds again. I will never attend another indoor concert and I very much suspect that I will never return to a cinema either. Itā€™ll take a while before outdoor events feel safe as well, but I see those as being the only viable alternative for me moving forward as this disease, and potentially more serious variants, become endemic.

That said, the anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers, I just find the whole thing irritating. Itā€™s for the civic good to get the vaccine, whether youā€™re hesitant about it or not. Iā€™ll admit to being absolutely petrified of getting it, but went ahead with it anyway because there were no legitimate objections I could raise that outweighed the possibility of dying of Covid. If people were pulling out reasonable objections to it, such as there being legitimate concerns about its immediate safety, then I would have some sympathy. But things like ā€œit magnetized meā€ or people typing long diatribes about how Bill Gates is trying to microchip them onto Facebook from their smart phones is both infuriating and deeply saddening at the same time.

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Thank you, well said.

I hope the mRNA-vaccines really will protect from variants as well as studies seem to indicate this week. But at this point I will stay risk-avoiding.

I am fully vaccinated since March, and I still fear large crowds. I noticed walking to the subway this morning how few people were wearing masks, and I still have mine on, and wondering if I dropped down from double masking too soon. I want to be around for Bond 30 (though at the rate the movies get produced, I might well be a nonagenarian).

The Delta variant is the next stage of the pandemic.

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For now, anyway. With the current rate of non-vaccination and the premature ditching of masks, the Delta variant will just end up being a stepping stone to something worse. Iā€™m already prepping myself for another round of lockdowns in the fall.

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Iā€™ve been fully vaccinated for awhile now and I still wear a mask and observe proper COVID protocols.

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As everyone should - but so many have thrown caution and facts in the wind already as if the pandemic were over. Which it is not.

Quite so. Itā€™s a big difference where you are living, how your social contacts are made up and what kind of personal care you take in your day to day routine. There is definitely reason for hope - but just as much for concern. Weā€™re in a much better place than one year ago. But we brazenly repeat the same mistakes and thatā€™s likely not going to improve the overall situation in the course of the next few months.

I have been fully vaccinated for some time myself due to certain circumstances. I had no complaints other than what I usually have after my annual flu shots or whatever is needed for travel. My personal contact routines are greatly reduced but to me thatā€™s not such a big sacrifice any more. Though I can understand younger folks looking at this from a different angle.

A lot in this pandemic has gone awfully wrong from day one. And a lot went belly up when it hit Europe, the States and the entire world. Weā€™ve also made plenty of right decisions though - the vaccines are a major breakthrough, even if trumpeting about saving the world is evidently self serving BS when we canā€™t meet demand for some time yet.

We see that just having the formula doesnā€™t magically make jabs pop up on street corners (so that talk about selflessly providing vaccines is sadly a little off the mark). And where vaccines are available itā€™s not a given people actually take them. Weā€™re a long way from herd immunity yet.

But the general development seems to at least go into a direction where cautious optimism is possible. With a little common sense and responsibility it is possible that we get on top of things these next 12 months.

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Itā€™s one definition of ā€œmadnessā€: repeating the same mistakes over and over again and expect different results.

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When I look at London these days - and I have to do that more often than I ever thought I would - there seems to be a feeling of ā€˜enoughā€™. As if the pandemic, because people have been through plenty of hardships, would now have the good grace of going away. So pubs can open and folks can have their regular hangovers again.

And while the UK, because of a particular form of political nostalgia (back to when wishful thinking actually did help), is somewhat susceptible to this idea, I think itā€™s safe to say we can see this irrational reaction throughout most societies. A point where people start thinking ā€˜Eff it - weā€™ve done what we could, now letā€™s get on!ā€™.

What to say? Such is human nature.

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I hope I get to see NTTD in cinema before the next lockdown starts as we can see with the football audiences big crowds are not healthy currently, because everybody wants it to get better does not mean t will.

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I wish these anti-vaxxers had learned some frigginā€™ math. The reason phase trials involves tens of thousands of people is that randomness levels out at a constant percentage. Indeed, the 90-95% effectiveness rates of the Pfizer and Moderna trials have proven the same with millions of doses. Some states and counties are starting to report cases by vaccinated vs. unvaxxed and guess what? Itā€™s still a 10 to 1 ratio. The fact that most deaths since April are among the unvaccinated and nearly 99% of hospitalizations are proof of its effectiveness against serious cases.

Iā€™m fortunate enough to live in a country and state with high vaccination rates and availability, but ashamed at the ignorance of those who have refused it. If you didnā€™t know a coin toss was 50% probability, how many times would you have to flip it to figure that out? Hundred? Thousand, ten thousand or a million? Vaccines are effective, period.

That being said, like Dalton I donā€™t feel comfortable in crowded indoor spaces. Iā€™ve been to a baseball game outdoors with social distancing, and have been indoors with small groups of people I know who are vaccinated. But I still wear a mask while inside stores or walking in a restaurant or bar. Part of that is social responsibility. I could be carrying it and not know it and spread it to others, vaxxed or not, where eventually the virus finds its way to a child or elder. But if we wear masks, that stops it in its tracks. Thatā€™s the social responsibility. There are other reasons to wear it tooā€“it basically wiped out two strands of the flu, keeps my face warm in the wind, and offers a chance to support a sports team or thought or convey a fashion with its design. Iā€™ve seen some cool masks, and some are preferable to peopleā€™s faces (sorry, but that probably includes me too.)

Do I miss sporting events enough to attend more events? No, TV is fine. Do I miss live music? Yes, but wonā€™t attend one indoors (until Roger Waters in September 2022 at least.) And it turns out there are tons of full live concerts on Youtube. Will I enter a theater? For F9, no, even though I want to see the Jurassic World Dominion IMAX teaser. Black Widow Iā€™ll stream and maybe catch a lightly attended matinee a few weeks into its run. NTTD? Most likely, but Iā€™ll have my mask on the whole time. Star Wars and MCU finished their over arching storylines before quarantine, but Daniel Craigā€™s James Bond still has one more entry. Itā€™s been a long wait, but still 6 mos. short of the longest (LTK to GE was 6 and a 1/2 years.) That being said, weā€™re not there yet.

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This whole thing has accelerated several things that I knew were eventually going to come to an end for me, but now staring directly in the face of it, I have to admit being somewhat upset that itā€™s arrived so early. Iā€™ve rarely been to the cinema much in recent years anyway, so I knew that there would probably come a time in the not too distant future when I just quit with it altogether, but now knowing that I wonā€™t be seeing Craigā€™s swansong, or even more disappointingly, Ghosbusters 3 in theaters, I have to admit that feels like a bit of a gut punch to think about. Also, the loss of indoor concerts, while not something I frequented all that much, is disappointing as well, because I much prefer them to their outdoor counterparts. Iā€™ll eventually have to suck it up and go to one, though, as I am going to eventually make it to my first U2 show, Covid or no Covid, as at least I can perhaps convince myself that I wonā€™t contract a deadly disease in an outdoor setting.

Taking everything into account, it really is infuriating that people are not going along with the vaccines. Unless you have a legitimate medical reason for not getting it, itā€™s much better to go ahead and get it. Otherwise, weā€™re headed for more lockdowns in the fall, and face the possibility of the unvaccinated becoming a viral reservoir from which a variant can emerge that defeats the vaccines and then weā€™re all back to square one. The way I figure it is, if a whiny crybaby like me can suck it up and get the vaccine, then it shouldnā€™t be that big of a deal. Much like you said, at this point, with all of the millions of people who have been vaccinated, the results are in that itā€™s not going to cause some horrific side effect on a massive scale that renders the vaccine unsafe for the masses. It should be as simple as consulting with oneā€™s doctor to make sure that itā€™s safe for each individual to take, and then going ahead and getting the vaccine if one is able so that this whole thing can be put behind us.

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I have no problem with the release date, just more concerned with the premiere - wanting to book flights for Gala and I but Iā€™ve seen to flexible hotel dates - however Iā€™ve been receiving emails from RAH that they are opening back up. The other option is that it could be in Leicester at the Odeon out of tradition. Just would like a solid date.

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