“Black Widow” grossed $ 13.2 million in field workplace on Thursday

Scarlett Johansson plays Natasha Romanoff, AKA Black Widow, in Marvel’s “Black Widow”.

Disney | wonder

“Black Widow” sold $ 13.2 million in preview tickets Thursday, raising the box office bar of the pandemic era.

The Marvel movie is expected to gross between $ 80 million and $ 110 million in box office revenue this weekend.

Universal’s “F9” grossed $ 7.1 million in its Thursday previews last month and $ 70 million on its debut weekend. Both were records for a film released in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The revenue for “Black Widow” on Thursday is equal to the $ 15.4 million raised from “Spider-Man: Homecoming” and the $ 14.5 million raised from “Thor: Ragnarok” . Both films were released in 2017. “Spider-Man” grossed $ 117 million on its three-day opening weekend and “Thor: Ragnarok,” according to Comscore, $ 123 million.

The strong preview numbers – coupled with pre-sales of tickets that keep pace with several Marvel films released before the pandemic – suggest fans will see this feature hit the big screen, despite it being available at Disney + for US $ 30 Dollar is available.

“This is the weekend Marvel fans have been waiting for, and their enthusiasm is reflected in Thursday’s preview figures, which point to what may well be the best pandemic-era opening weekend for Black Widow,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “Despite its availability on Disney +, ‘Black Widow’ is undeniably a big screen event and once again proves the essence of the cinematic experience.”

The number of cinemas open to the public is still below the level of 2019. Before the weekend, around 81% of the cinemas will sell tickets, reports Comscore.

Regardless, Black Widow is headed for the biggest opening of the pandemic, and the industry is likely to see the highest total weekend box office gross since March 2020. This will be a massive step up from the $ 901,000 domestic box office made during the same weekend last year.

Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of Universal Studios and CNBC.