Marvel & Disney Disappointed over Black Widow’s Box Office!

The American superhero film Black Widow fails to set the high-grossing MCU Box Office Record! The movie earned an additional $26.5 million at the domestic box office, dropping approximately 67% in the second weekend in theaters. The Scarlett Johansson superhero film suffered a North American theatrical gross drop from $80.4 million.

The MCU’s Black Widow was released on July 9, after being delayed for over a year due to the pandemic. As per Deadline, the movie had the biggest opening weekend of the pandemic. It broke the pandemic record-setting with a whopping $80 million. HBO Max’s release of Space Jam: A New Legacy earned the number one spot with $31.65 million. Black Widow is the new Marvel film in nearly two years. The movie hit theatres and Disney+ last weekend. In the second week, the movie dropped 67.5-percent while Disney+ collected $60 million in revenue from its first weekend.
The steepest second-weekend box office decline was severe. The National Association of Theatre Owners decided to release a statement in which they blamed Disney’s decision to release the movie in theatres and Disney+ Premier Access at the same time.

NATO stated in the press release, “Despite assertions that this pandemic-era improvised release strategy was a success for Disney and the simultaneous release model, it demonstrates that an exclusive theatrical release means more revenue for all stakeholders in every cycle of the movie’s life.”

“It ignores that Premiere Access revenue is not new-found money, but was pulled forward from a more traditional PVOD window, which is no longer an option,” the statement added.”Combined with the lost theatrical revenue and forgone traditional PVOD revenue, the answer to these questions will show that simultaneous release costs Disney money in revenue per viewer over the life of the film.”
Black Widow is available in theaters and streaming on Disney+ Premier Access.