Disney’s already postponed the release of Mulan in China amidst fears of the rapidly-spreading coronavirus, but it doesn’t look like the outbreak will have a similar impact on Black Widow — at least, just not quite yet. The theatrical analysts at Box Office Pro suggest Black Widow is on track for a healthy opening somewhere between $90 million and $130 million. The high end of that range would squeeze the Scarlett Johansson vehicle in a Top 10 spot in the current MCU standings, right between Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ($146.5m) and Iron Man 2 ($128.1m).
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In fact, $130m would be the third-highest opening week for a debut solo movie from Marvel Studios behind Black Panther ($202m) and Captain Marvel ($153m). On the low end, $90m right above Thor: The Dark World.
There’s been a cloud of uncertainty surrounding the box office — and public events in general — since the easily-spreadable virus first surfaced. Major organizers like Emerald City Comic Con and South by Southwest, each with attendees in the hundreds of thousands, have canceled their respective events. Originally set to debut in less than a month, the producers of the 25th James Bond flick No Time to Die delayed the movie until November.
Last month, former Disney chief Bob Iger explained the company’s procedures in dealing with the outbreak, noting the Mouse’s theme parks in Shanghai and Hong Kong have been shut down.
“At this point, our parks in Shanghai and Hong Kong are shut down. We don’t know for how long. Without knowing for how long, it’s difficult to tell…This is something that’s a big concern to us. We have thousands of people that work for us in that area of the world. We have concerns for them, we have concerns for the world and the people of China, of course.”
“All of the movie companies that are expecting to distribute movies coming up in China, obviously are impacted by this,” he added. “Again, it is hard to tell. We have a release coming out in March, Mulan, which obviously would have been of great interest to China. It will eventually get into China, at this point, we’re not sure when. Obviously, the big issue on everybody’s mind and everyone’s concern is what’s going on with this virus. And how far will it go in terms of its impact on people.”
Black Widow races into theaters May 1st.
