Disney's 'Black Widow' Muscles Universal's 'F9' Aside In US Box Office

Scarlett Johansson kicked Vin Diesel and John Cena far out of way over the weekend as Walt Disney Co.'s DIS Marvels superhero adventure "Black Widow" reigned at the weekend U.S. box office with an $80 million gross. This marks the biggest opening weekend since the pandemic while knocking “F9” from Comcast Corporation’s CMCSA Universal out of the top berth that it held for the past two weekends.

What Happened: Disney released "Black Widow" simultaneously on its Disney+ streaming service for $29.99, and the company reported the film generated more than $60 million on that platform; this marked the first time that Disney shared viewership data for a streaming release. The film brought in an additional $78 million in the overseas box office.

Universal held the second, third and fourth rankings at the weekend box office with "F9" generating $10.8 million in its third week of theatrical release, "Boss Baby: Family Business" ringing up $8.7 million in its second week on the big screen and "The Forever Purge" adding an additional $6.7 million to its grosses for the second week in theaters.

While “F9” was toppled from its pinnacle at the U.S. box office, its weekend tally brought its U.S. box office return to $141 million, the second highest for a pandemic-era release, while its global return tallied $541.8 million.

ViacomCBS’ VIAC Paramount had the fifth highest grossing film with "A Quiet Place Part II," which earned $3 million at the box office. The film has been in theaters since May 28 and has generated $150 million at the U.S. box office, making it the highest grossing domestic release since the pandemic.

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What's Next: The big release for the upcoming weekend is “Space Jam: A New Legacy” from AT&T’s T Warner Bros. This film revisits the territory staked out in 1996’s “Space Jam” with its mix of Looney Tunes animated characters and an NBA legend as its live-action star: Michael Jordan in the original film, LeBron James in this new version.

Also coming this weekend are a pair of films featuring stars who might be considered a wee bit past their prime: Bruce Willis in “Out of Death” from Vertical Entertainment” and Nicholas Cage in “Pig” from Neon.

Two other new films slated for a July 16 release are coming to theaters without box office stars: “Die in a Gunfight” from Lionsgate Entertainment (NYSE: LGF-A) and “Escape Room: Tournament of Champions” from Sony Entertainment’s SNE SONY)) Sony Pictures.

For straight-to-streaming entertainment, Netflix NFLX will be releasing “Fear Street Part Three: 1666,” the final installment in the supernatural horror trilogy.

Photo: Scarlett Johansson in “Black Widow” courtesy of Disney.