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.