Black Widow Headed Towards Biggest Opening Weekend Since Pandemic Began

Black Widow is headed to the best opening weekend for any movie since the pandemic began. After hauling in a pandemic record $13.2 million in preview night showings on Thursday, Black Widow earned $39.5 million on Friday. That puts the first Marvel Studios theatrical released in two years on track to earn $89 million in its first three days at the box office despite simultaneous debuting to stream at home via Disney+'s Premier Access option. That'll be enough for Black Widow to surpass the previous pandemic record of $70 million set by F9 only two weeks ago.

Black Widow marks Marvel's return to theaters two years after Spider-Man: Far From Home's debut. The film takes place between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, filling in the gap between movies and illuminating Natasha Romanoff's mysterious past from before she joined the Avengers. Speaking to ComicBook.com, Director Cate Shortland discussed how the film maintains stakes despite fans knowing Natasha's fate in Avengers: Endgame.

"Kevin Feige spoke about that from the beginning," Shortland said. "We spoke about that even though we knew what had happened to her in Endgame, it still had to feel at times that she was in trouble. Say with that Taskmaster fight on the bridge: we wanted to make it really raw. I kept thinking about women that have been attacked on the street. So we wanted to make it really gritty, and that other people could relate to it. It wasn't two sort of superhero characters fighting. It was Natasha fighting for her life and I think that's kind of the spirit of the film that we wanted to take throughout."

Here's the official synopsis for the movie: "In Marvel Studios' action-packed spy thriller Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger.

"Scarlett Johansson reprises her role as Natasha/Black Widow, Florence Pugh stars as Yelena, David Harbour portrays Alexei/The Red Guardian, and Rachel Weisz is Melina. Directed by Cate Shortland and produced by Kevin Feige, Black Widow—the first film in Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe— will launch simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access in most Disney+ markets on July 9, 2021."

What do you think? Let us know in the comments. Black Widow is now playing in theaters and streaming on Disney+ Premier Access.