Marvel’s ‘Black Widow’ Thursday Previews Break Pandemic Box Office Records

In case you need a reminded that movies are back, look no further than Thursday evening’s strong box office returns for Black Widow.

It’s been nearly two years since Marvel Studios released anything new in theaters and, even with small screen distractions via Disney+ such as WandaVision and Loki, it seems abundantly clear that fans have been clamoring to return to that cinematic experience.

Between its previews Thursday evening – which started as early as 5pm – the film garnered $13.2 million. While that might not seem like much, considering we’re still in a pandemic, that’s still pretty impressive. Deadline points at the two previous Summer hits A Quiet Place II and F9 made $4.8 million and $7.1 million respectively. In one night alone, Black Widow has made more than both of those totals combined!

To put that into perspective, Captain Marvel, the studio’s first solo female superhero film made approximately $20 million the Thursday it dropped. Once again, that was before the pandemic. While it doesn’t seem likely the film will break any pre-pandemic records, at the very least Disney projects the film will make at least $75 million this weekend. Other outlets forecast it’ll make as much as $90 million.

The bottom line is that fans are absolutely showing up for the movie. And it makes sense because despite being set in the past, it’s got a lot of insight about the future of the MCU.

Directed by Cate Shortland, Black Widow, the first feature film in Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, will launch simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access (in most Disney+ markets) on July 9, 2021.

You can read our review of the film here.

Source: Deadline