Analyzing US and UK audience reactions to No Time To Die

After a solid 15-year tenure, Daniel Craig is hanging up his tuxedo as James Bond. No Time To Die marks the end of a memorable, action-packed Craig-Bond era as the franchise heads in a brand new direction…

Media and entertainment brands use Relative Insight to measure the impact of new campaigns or in this case, to measure reactions to a new movie. Through sophisticated text analytics, organizations can discover the true thoughts and opinions of their audiences.

We wanted to understand how audiences across the pond are reacting to Craig’s final ride as 007. have US and UK audience reactions to No Time To Die differed starkly? And what can this tell us about two contrasting demographics?

To find out, we looked at social listening data from both the UK and the US the week after No Time To Die was released in each country. We then uploaded this raw language data to Relative Insight, a text analytics platform that leverages comparison to discover what is unique and similar about two qualitative data sets.

Next, we compared US and UK audience reactions to No Time To Die on Twitter to discover interesting audience insights. This comparison enabled us to identify the linguistic nuances unique to each demographic and discover the differences in how British and American audiences are reacting to the new Bond movie.

British movie reactions

Since Dr. No first premiered in 1962, James Bond has remained an iconic symbol in British culture. Our analysis found that UK audiences were 3.3x more likely to use the word British throughout their tweets, claiming that James Bond is a British classic and forever a British great. This suggests that in comparison to American audiences, Brits cling to the notion that James Bond is quintessentially British, implying a sense of pride and ownership for the film franchise.

Our analysis of US and UK audience reactions to No Time To Die also revealed that British audiences were 6.1x more likely to use superlatives to describe the newest Bond film. Words such as brilliant, superb, fabulous and class were used by UK audiences, implying that Brits enjoyed the new movie and took to Twitter to recommend the film to others.

After the release of No Time To Die, Labour leader Kier Starmer told ITV News “I don’t have a favourite Bond, but I do think it’s time for a female Bond.” – a comment which has caused uproar on social media and tainted a lot of the discussion around the new Bond movie.

British audiences debated whether a female James Bond was indeed due. However, the overall sentiment was that creatives should make a female spy franchise that rivals that of Bond, rather than merely replacing an established male character with a woman. Starmer’s comment prompted audiences to further criticize the film industry, stressing the need to create more female leading roles.

American movie reactions

In contrast to British audiences, Americans on Twitter were twice as likely to react emotionally to the latest Bond movie, evident through words such as emotional and feels. This suggests that Americans were moved by the film and were more open to expressing their emotions on social media.

Furthermore, our social media analysis of US and UK audience reactions to No Time To Die revealed that Americans were 2.6x more likely to talk about the theme song for the new Bond film. Written and performed by Billie Eilish, US Twitter users praised the American teenager for her musical talents.

Looking at more audience insights from the comparison, we found that Americans were 5.3x more likely to speak about the movie in relation to Daniel Craig’s other Bond films, including Skyfall, Quantum of Solace, Spectre and Casino Royale. The fact that American viewers discussed their rankings of these films highlights that No Time To Die couldn’t be judged as a stand-alone film. Moreover, it suggests that US audiences may generally have more knowledge of previous Bond films, with a longstanding fanbase who are active on Twitter.

By analyzing different geographic audiences and their reactions, like US and UK audience reactions to No Time To Die, media and entertainment companies can measure the real success of a film. Equipped with these audience research insights, brands can fully understand the opinions of different audiences.

It appears that British and American conversations around James Bond, and particularly the latest film No Time To Die, are quite nuanced and different in focus. When a new actor takes on the iconic 007, we’ll be here to track the reactions…