Space Jam: A New Legacy — A look at Warner Bros film's North American box office performance

Black Widow ceded its No 1 spot to an unlikely foe in its second week in North American theatres: The Tune Squad.

LeBron James, Bugs Bunny and the rest of the stars of Warner Bros.’ Space Jam: A New Legacy defied expectations and won the box office this weekend. According to studio estimates Sunday, Space Jam: A New Legacy grossed $31.7 million in North America, while Black Widow took in $26.3 million.

The live action/animated movie — a sequel nearly 25 years after the original Space Jam with Michael Jordan — has NBA superstar LeBron James teaming up with Bugs Bunny and other Looney Tunes characters in a high-stakes basketball game against a rogue artificial-intelligence entity threatening his son.

Last weekend, Black Widow became the highest grossing film of the pandemic. Disney also surprised many in the industry by revealing its first weekend profits from the movie’s streaming rentals.

Space Jam is the largest pandemic opening for Warner Bros despite poor reviews

• Not many expected Space Jam: A New Legacy to pull off this win. The poorly reviewed film was pegged for an opening in the $20 million range.
• But a sizeable number of families and millennials who grew up with the original Space Jam left the house and went to a theatre to see it, even though it’s currently streaming on HBO Max free for subscribers.
• Audiences also gave the film a promising A- CinemaScore, suggesting word of mouth could be strong.
• Space Jam: A New Legacy is the largest pandemic opening for Warner Bros., which is significant since the studio in 2021 is releasing all its films simultaneously in theatres and on HBO Max.

(Also read on Firstpost —Space Jam review round-up: Warner Bros film, starring LeBron James, is 'overwhelmingly suffused with corporate propaganda')

Largest North American opening for a family film since the beginning of the pandemic

• Warner Bros said 32 percent of the audience was under 18, which is larger than usual.
• Most of the major family films that have come out during the pandemic — 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, Warner Bros.’ head of domestic distribution. “It’s just a fun movie for the family.”

Space Jam international box office

Black Widow has a fall in ticket sales during second weekend

• Black Widow, meanwhile fell 67 percent in its second weekend, which, although steep, is also fairly normal for superhero films, which tend to have frontloaded audiences.
• Internationally, the Scarlett Johansson-led film picked up another $29.9 million, bringing its global grosses to $264 million.

Other films

• 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 actually better than the first film’s debut and in line with studio expectations.
• 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 million and The Forever Purge, with $4.1 million.
• A Quiet Place Part II, which recently became available on Paramount+, is still doing good numbers into its eighth week in theatres. It added another $2.3 million, bringing its domestic total to $155 million.
• The Anthony Bourdain documentary Roadrunner also did well this weekend, grossing around $1.9 million from 925 theatres, making it the top grossing specialty debut of the year.

(With inputs from agencies)