Black Widow: Fans Mourn the Marvel Movie on Its Original Opening Night

Marvel fans on Thursday celebrated and mourned Black Widow, the first solo feature starring Scarlett Johansson's super-spy Avenger, on what would have been the night the Marvel Studios movie opened in theaters before its release date was delayed until November amid the coronavirus crisis. Taking the date once held by The Eternals, Disney will now open the Cate Shortland-directed Black Widow on November 6, 2020, as most theaters around the world remain shuttered indefinitely due to concerns over COVID-19. The film's opening night Thursday also would have marked the official start of Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to be launched with Black Widow.

Long-range projections that emerged in early March, before Black Widow was postponed, expected Natasha Romanoff to dominate the domestic box office starting April 30: according to Box Office Pro, Black Widow had an original opening weekend range between $90 million and $130 million. The new movie is set between the events of 2016's Captain America: Civil War and 2018's Avengers: Infinity War — where Johansson's founding Avenger was featured prominently — and comes after Natasha was killed off in Avengers: Endgame, now the highest-grossing movie of all time with $2.79 billion global earnings.

After allowing a fugitive Captain America (Chris Evans) to escape capture in Civil War — where Natasha's found family, the Avengers, were torn apart by the Sokovia Accords imposed by the world's governments — Natasha is on the run. Reunited with old family from a similar background, including Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) and Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz), both products of Russia's Red Room and the Black Widow program, and Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour), the Soviet superhero far from his glory days as Russia's version of Captain America, Natasha will unravel a conspiracy pitting her against threats both old and new when Black Widow opens later this year.