Marvel’s Black Widow speeds into theaters this weekend. It’s the first Marvel movie since Spiderman: Far from Home premiered two years ago on July 2, 2019. That film followed the events of Avengers: Endgame.
Black Widow stars Scarlett Johansson, who returns in the title role. Florence Pugh, Rachel Weisz and David Harbour are also featured.
Black Widow confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha Romanoff must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger.
The COVID-19 pandemic delayed Black Widow’s release several times. Specifically, the Marvel epic was to release Summer 2020 and has seen multiple moves in release date. It had shifted to May 7, 2021 most recently.
“We’re all eager to get the movie out, but more important than anything, everybody wants the experience to feel safe,” Johansson, returning to the role as Natasha Romanoff, says of the Phase 4 movie’s move to Summer 2021. “[We want to] have people…feel confident about sitting in an enclosed theater.
Reviews have been excellent since the initial first reactions. For example, Nora Dominick of BuzzFeed says “Florence Pugh was born for the MCU, and her dynamic with Scarlett is a triumph.”
Furthermore, Black Widow is certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. In addition, it holds a 94% audience score on the site.
Box Office Outlook
The question around Hollywood is whether Black Widow will break the $100 million weekend mark in its opening frame. F9 racked up an estimated $70 million on its opening weekend June 24-June 27. That is the high water mark in the pandemic era.
The new Marvel film has several things going for it.
- Continued interest in the Marvel universe. While it has been two years since the last Marvel film, it has lived on in three Disney+ series. The most recent, Loki, is the most “in-demand” show in the world currently. Parrot Analytics reports that Within seven days of its premiere, “Loki” had 89.9 times more demand than the average TV series globally. WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier also had substantial buzz earlier in 2021.
- FOMO. With every Marvel film and series interconnected, audiences have to watch every new installment to keep in the loop.
- Nearly 90% of movie theaters are now open worldwide. Comscore says that near-total reopening of theaters fuels optimism for the industry.
“As the studios continue to ramp up the rollout of their most-anticipated films, audiences are showing up at their local cinemas to enjoy the big screen experience. Blockbuster films shown in a movie theater become ‘must see’ events that no matter where you live, speak the international language of cinema to like-minded movie fans around the world.”
Paul Dergarabedian, Senior Media Analyst, Comscore
- Black Widow already made $13.2 million Thursday night. The Hollywood Reporter says the “Scarlett Johansson superhero pic is showing signs of doing pre-pandemic level business.”
However, the film is available to stream on Disney+ now. Via the streamer’s Premier Access offering, the film can be ordered for $29.99 ahead of its October 6 premier on the service.
At the end of the day, we genuinely believe Black Widow has an excellent shot of having a $100 million domestic weekend.
