‘Black Widow’ Posts Best Non-Holiday Monday During Pandemic At Domestic B.O., Second Weekend Eyed At $24M+

After posting a record domestic opening during the pandemic with $80.3M, Disney/Marvel’s Black Widow went on to do north of $7.16M, which is the best non-holiday Monday during the Covid era to date. Paramount’s A Quiet Place Part II easily owns the best Monday during the pandemic at $9.54M, however, that was on Memorial Day. Through eight days, Black Widow stands at $87.5M, currently booked at 4,160 theaters.

The expectation is that with Warner Bros.’ day-and-date theatrical HBO Max sequel Space Jam: A New Legacy coming into the marketplace along with Columbia Pictures sequel Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (which is a pure theatrical window release) that Black Widow will still lead at the box office, despite an expected 65%-70% slide for a second weekend of $24M-$28M. The decline takes into account Black Widow‘s availability on Disney+ Premier. Universal’s F9 posted a second weekend that was down 67% from its $70M opening, however, the pic’s second Sunday fell on July 4th which isn’t a vibrant day for moviegoing.

On the upside for the B.O., Canada’s Ontario, including Toronto film hub, is reopening cinemas this coming weekend at reduced capacities after several months of shutdown. Space Jam 2 is expected to be behind Black Widow at this point in time at the weekend B.O.. We’ll update you on forecasts for that sequel to the 1996 Looney Tunes NBA movie; the first title debuting to $27.5M in November of that year and ending its domestic run at $90.4M.

Escape Room 2, which Sony protected during the pandemic for an ultimate theatrical release in lieu of selling to a streamer, is set to do $7M-$8M at 2,775 theaters. Previews kick off at 3PM in 2,200 locations on Thursday for the $15M production which has filmmaker Adam Robitel from the first 2019 movie returning to behind the camera. Escape Room opened to $18.2M, over Jan. 4-6, 2019 and went on to make $57M stateside, $155.7M WW off a $9M production cost before P&A.

In addition to Disney’s $80.3M opening on Black Widow, they reported that the MCU title opened to a near $160M WW, $60M WW on Disney+ PVOD for a grand global debut across theatrical and streaming near $220M.