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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (July 21, 2021)
July 21, 2021 The Skanner Portland & Seattle Page 5 Arts & Entertainment ‘Space Jam’ Dunks on ‘Black Widow’ to Take Box Office No. 1 “Black Widow” ceded its No. 1 spot to an unlike- ly foe in its second week in theaters: The Tune Squad. LeBron James, Bugs Bunny and the rest of the stars of Warner Bros.’ “Space Jam: A New Leg- acy” defied expectations and won the box office this weekend. According to studio estimates Sun- day, “Space Jam: A New Legacy” grossed $31.7 million in North Ameri- ca, while “Black Widow” took in $26.3 million. Not many expected “Space Jam: A New Leg- acy” to pull off this win. The poorly reviewed film was pegged for an opening in the $20 mil- lion range. But a sizable number of families and millennials who grew up with the original “Space Jam” left the house and went to a theater to see it, even though it’s cur- rently streaming on HBO Max free for subscrib- ers. Not only that, audi- ences also gave the film a promising A- CinemaS- core, suggesting word of mouth could be strong. “Space Jam: A New Legacy” is the largest pandemic opening for ing its first weekend profits from the movie’s streaming rentals. Rent- al grosses were not pro- vided this week, howev- er. This weekend also saw the launch of “Escape Room: Tournament of Champions,” a sequel to the high-concept 2019 film. Sony is projecting that the film will gross $8.8 million over the weekend, which is actu- ally better than the first film’s debut and in line with studio expectations. This image released by Warner Bros. Entertainment shows Lebron James in a scene from “Space Jam: A New Legacy.” (Warner Bros. Entertainment via AP) Warner Bros., which is significant since the stu- dio in 2021 is releasing all its films simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max. It’s also the largest domestic opening for a family film since the be- ginning of the pandemic. Warner Bros. said 32% of the audience was under 18, which is larger than usual. Most of the major family films that have come out during the pan- demic — from “The Boss Baby: Family Business” to “Raya and the Last Dragon” — have opened well under $20 million. But audiences of all ages turned out for the new “Space Jam.” “It shows that families have waited for a movie that everyone can go to and that’s this movie,” said Jeff Goldstein, War- ner Bros.’ head of domes- tic distribution. It’s just a fun movie for the family.” “Black Widow,” mean- while fell 67% in its sec- ond weekend, which, although steep, is also fairly normal for su- perhero films, which tend to have frontload- ed audiences. Interna- tionally, the Scarlett Jo- hansson-led film picked up another $29.9 mil- lion, bringing its global grosses to $264 million. Last weekend, “Black Widow” became the highest grossing film of the pandemic. Disney also surprised many in the industry by reveal- “F9” took fourth place with $7.6 million. The “Fast & Furious” film has made $591.2 million globally to date. The fifth and sixth place spots also went to Universal films: “The Boss Baby: Family Business” with $4.7 mil- lion and “The Forever Purge,” with $4.1 million. “A Quiet Place Part II,” which recently became available on Paramount+, is still doing good num- bers into its eighth week in theaters. It added an- other $2.3 million, bring- ing its domestic total to $155 million. “Pig”, number 10 in ticket sales, was filmed in Portland. The Anthony Bourdain documentary “Road- runner” also did well this weekend, grossing around $1.9 million from 925 theaters, making it the top grossing special- ty debut of the year. Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sun- day at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domes- tic figures will be re- leased Monday. 1. “Space Jam: A New Leg- acy,” $31.7 million. 2. “Black Widow,” $26.3 million. 3. “Escape Room: Tourna- ments of Champions,” $8.8 million. 4. “F9,” $7.6 million. 5. “The Boss Baby: The Family Business,” $4.7 million. 6. “The Forever Purge,” $4.2 million. 7. “A Quiet Place Part II,” $2.3 million. 8. “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bour- dain,” $1.9 million. 9. “Cruella,” $1.1 million. “Pig,” $945,000.
