SPACE JAM Dethrones BLACK WIDOW After A Close Weekend At The Box Office

After a closely run race, Warner Bros. Space Jam: A New Legacy took the crown and dethroned Marvel’s Black Widow from the top of the weekend box office. It’s an upset which neither party saw coming but that neither will forget in a hurry.

Taking the top spot this week, Space Jam: A New Legacy debuted with a robust $31.7M. Going in to the weekend forecasters put the sequel to the 1996 original at somewhere in the $20M range. Surpassing those estimates gave the live-action/animation hybrid the biggest opening for a family targeted movie of the pandemic-era. Landing in 3,965 theatres in North America, the movie earned an average $7,982 per-screen. Those numbers are considered particularly impressive when fans are also able to stream the movie, at no extra charge, via HBO Max.

Weekend audiences gave the film a coveted “A-” CinemaScore, a huge improvement over the “rotten” score of 31% according to reviewers.

Falling in to second place this week, grossing $26.3M is Marvel Studios Black Widow. That’s a fairly steep drop of -67% from its opening frame. Many commentators will put this down the film’s appearance on the Disney+ streaming service where it is available for a $30 surcharge.

In its second weekend the 24th entry in to the Marvel Cinematic Universe grossed a reported average of $6,140 per-screen across 4,275 North American theatres. It’s domestic total is currently a pandemic-era impressive $132M. Overseas Widow has, so far, raked up a further impressive $100.7M for a global total currently sitting at $232.7M.

Third place goes to the second new release of the weekend, Escape Room: Tournament of Champions. The Sony Pictures release had originally been slated for an April 2020 debut before finding itself moving back by over a year. Playing in 2,815 theatres, the sequel to the 2019 original grossed an estimated $8.8M. Additionally, Tournament of Champions grossed $4.5M in international territories for a global opening of $13.3M. The first film opened to $18.2M and grossed $155.7M globally.

In fourth place and in its fourth weekend at the box office is Universal Pictures’ Fast 9. The film narrowly missed out on third place after grossing a further $7.6M for a domestic tally of $154.8M. That’s a fall of -33.4% from the previous weekend, with the film still placing on 3,368 screens. Overseas, Fast 9 continues to perform well with a total gross around $436.4M for a global total of $591.3M.

Landing in fifth this week was another Universal title, The Boss Baby: Family Business, the sequel to the 2017 Boss Baby earned $4.7M in its third weekend, falling -46.8% from the previous weekend. It’s domestic total now sits at $44.6M. Its international performance continues to be lacklustre, reaching only $3.7M in total. The film continues to play on NBCUniversal’s streaming platform, Peacock. 

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