'Black Widow' Collapses in Second Weekend, 'Space Jam' Wins the Box Office
by EG
Black Widow, last week's top movie, lost two thirds of its audience from its opening weekend in its second weekend, one of the worst second-week drops of any Marvel movie. In the meantime, Space Jam: A New Legacy won the weekend with a surprisingly strong box-office showing. It's worth noting, however, that Space Jam took in less than half than what Black Widow did last week and only edged out the Marvel movie by a bit. Read on for details.
LeBron James was King of the box office this weekend.
Space Jam: A New Legacy, starring the basketball great, beat holdover Black Widow to top the chart with a better-than-expected domestic debut of $31.7 million from 3,956 theaters.
Marvel and Disney’s Black Widow fell to No. 2 in its second outing with $26.3 million. The superhero pic suffered a steep 67 percent decline, one of the biggest drops ever for a Marvel title, and the worst among the Marvel films released by Disney. The decline underscores that the box office recovery is far from over; also, the tentpole is available in the home via Disney+ Premier Access (piracy is another problem).
Heading into the weekend, Warner Bros. expected Space Jam 2 to open in the $20 million range in North America. That would have been a problematic start for a movie that cost a reported $150 million to make. The film instead was buoyed by an A- CinemaScore and an ethnically diverse audience.
Overseas — where numerous markets are still impacted by the pandemic — the film opened to a tepid $23 million from 64 territories for a global start of $54.7 million.
In North America, Space Jam 2 scored the biggest opening for a family title in the pandemic-era despite poor reviews, growing concerns over the Delta variant and new mask mandates in L.A. County that took effect just before midnight on Saturday. (L.A. is the country’s largest moviegoing market.)
Among ticket buyers, 61 percent were under 25, including 49 percent under 17. The film skewed male overall (54 percent). Caucasians made up 35 percent, followed by Blacks (31 percent), Latinos (27 percent), Asians (4 percent and Native Americans/Other (3 percent). Space Jam over indexed in the East and South, while the West led the charge in pure dollars, according to PostTrak.
The movie’s performance is another win for filmmaker Malcolm D. Lee (Girls Trip).
In Space Jam 2, James encounters a plethora of classic Warner Bros. characters. Michael Jordan starred in the first Space Jam, which debuted to roughly $27 million without adjusting for inflation.
The live-action/animated movie is also available on HBO Max. (Black Widow is likewise playing in the home via Disney+ Premier Access for $30.)
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.