Black Widow

Source: Disney / Marvel Studios

‘Black Widow’

Marvel Studios’ Black Widow has made a strong start at the North American box office, taking $13.2m from Thursday (July 8) evening preview screenings according to distributor Disney. 

That puts the eagerly awaited release ahead of Thursday preview showings by pre-pandemic Marvel titles including Ant-Man & The Wasp (with $11.5m), Wonder Woman ($11m) and Venom ($10m) though just short of Spider-Man: Homecoming ($15.4m) and Thor: Ragnarok ($14.5m). 

The performance easily beats the preview openings of recent pandemic releases F9 and A Quiet Place Part II and backs predictions of a weekend domestic tally for Black Widow of more than $80m. Disney has projected a $75m opening for its latest comic book adaptation, in which Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh star for director Cate Shortland. 

Internationally, said Disney, Black Widow on Thursday added another 30 markets to the 11 it was already in and reached an estimated total gross of $22.4m for two days. 

Some sources are predicting the film could end up with a $140m global tally by the end of the weekend. 

The Marvel blockbuster opened as the number one film in all its major markets, starting with $3.3m in Korea, $1.7m in Australia, $1.1m in Russia, $1m in Mexico, $900,000 in Hong Kong and $700,000 in Japan.