1st LD: "Black Widow" smashes pandemic-era weekend box office record in North America

LOS ANGELES, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Disney and Marvel Studios' spy thriller "Black Widow" smashed pandemic-era weekend box office record in North America with an estimated 80 million U.S. dollars opening from 4,160 theaters, according to studio figures collected by measurement firm Comscore.

The previous record-holder during the COVID-19 pandemic was Universal's action film "F9: The Fast Saga," which was released last month with a 70-million-dollar opening in North America.

It's also the biggest opening for a film in North America since Disney and Lucasfilm's "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker," which was released in December 2019 with an opening weekend of 177 million dollars.

The opening of "Black Widow" gave a much needed boost to North American film industry. Total earnings for all films at the North American box office amounted to an estimated 117 million dollars this weekend. It's the biggest weekend and the first-ever over 100-million-dollar mark of the pandemic era in North America.

The much-anticipated film also generated more than 60 million dollars in Disney Plus Premier Access consumer spend globally, marking the rare occasion in which a studio discloses revenues for digital rentals, Variety, a top Hollywood trade publication, reported. Disney Plus subscribers must pay an additional 29.99 dollars to purchase the film.

Directed by Cate Shortland, Scarlett Johansson reprises her role as Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow in the latest Marvel film. She 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 must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger.

"Black Widow" holds an approval rating of 80 percent based on 318 reviews to date on review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes and an "A-" CinemaScore from audiences.

Comscore data showed the film also enjoyed amazing success internationally this weekend, taking in 78.8 million in 46 overseas markets.

Universal's action film "F9: The Fast Saga" moved to the second place with 10.88 million dollars from 3,649 locations in its third weekend, pushing its North American cume to 141.3 million dollars.

Helmed by Chinese American director Justin Lin, the latest in Vin Diesel's on-going "Fast &Furious" franchise, his ode to fast cars and faster action, is based on a script co-written by Lin and Daniel Casey, and features an all-star line of Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, John Cena, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jordana Brewster, Sung Kang, and others.

In the third place, Universal's release of DreamWorks Animation's "The Boss Baby: Family Business" brought in 8.7 million dollars from 3,688 locations in its second weekend. The film has grossed 34.74 million dollars in North America to date.

The animated film is a sequel to the 2017 "The Boss Baby," which earned more than 500 million dollars worldwide. Directed by returning filmmaker Tom McGrath, the film features the voices of Alec Baldwin, Jeff Goldblum, Ariana Greenblatt, Jimmy Kimmel and Lisa Kudrow.

The Templeton brothers - Tim and his Boss Baby little bro Ted - have become adults and drifted away from each other in the sequel. But a new boss baby with a cutting-edge approach and a can-do attitude is about to bring them together again and inspire a new family business.