The Russians are coming! This weekend, Black Widow with four “Russian” superheroes (three of them women!) won the box office in North America, attracting the largest audience of all films released during the pandemic. The long-delayed Disney/Marvel comic grossed $80 million from 4,160 theaters in its long-delayed debut.
Disney pushing the release of Black Widow to the summer of 2021 proved to be a smart move, as it was enough time for a large portion of the US population to be fully vaccinated and flock to theaters en masse. In social surveys, 76% of potential viewers said that now they are not afraid to go to the cinema.
Here it is important to note that 80 million is far from all the money brought by the painting. For an additional $30 (!) fee), it has been available 24/7 on the Disney+ streaming service since its theatrical release. This undoubtedly cut into the opening weekend box office somewhat, but for the first time in the history of such “hybrid” releases, Disney reported an additional $60 million plus by the 80’s. For the world premiere of the film, Disney studio clearly used these “streaming” fees to promote Black Widow as the first film to exceed $100 million in the first days of release during the pandemic. Of course, this album pales in comparison to previous pandemic-era blockbusters, including F9 and A Quiet Place Part II, as those two films have yet to be streamed and all their fine box office collections.
After two weeks at the top, Fast and Furious 9 dropped to second place with $10.88 million for the weekend, bringing its North American total to $141.33 million by the end of its third weekend. The Boss Baby: Family Business took third place with $8.7 million, bringing the sequel’s total domestic haul to $34.7 million.
Black Widow earned an additional $78.8 million this weekend in 46 countries. And this, which is important, without China, where the release date has not yet been determined. Top grosses include $12.7 million in South Korea, $9.7 million in the UK, $6.9 million in France, $5.3 million in Australia and $4.8 million in Mexico. F9’s foreign gross surpassed $400 million this weekend after another $13.61 million, bringing its overseas total to $400.48 million and a global cume of $541.8 million. And this is not the end – the opening of the picture in key countries is still ahead, including in France (July 14), Germany (July 15), Japan (August 6) and Italy (August 18).