Box Office: ‘F9’ to Stay on Top as ‘Boss Baby’ Sequel, ‘Forever Purge’ and ‘Zola’ Open in Theaters

Marvel‘s “Black Widow” had a pandemic-record opening making $80.3 million last weekend. However, in its second frame, the top spot has been usurped by LeBron James‘ “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” as the sequel has earned $31.6 million, which is still slightly less than WarnerMedia was hoping for, but the studio is also offering a home viewing option to HBO Max subscribers.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Black Widow” held on to top spot at the South Korean box office despite a challenge from the new release of local horror film “The Medium.” New release, “Space Jam: A New Legacy” made no impact.The Disney-Marvel film saw weekend earnings of $4.09 million, a drop of 54% compared with the previous session.

Space Jam: A New Legacy is having a successful weekend at the box office!

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefA powerful opening by “Black Widow” lifted the South Korean box office to its biggest weekend this year. The Disney-Marvel title dominated proceedings with an 80% market share.The film launched in Korea on Wednesday and raced far ahead of the competition.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterDisney and Marvel’s superhero adventure “Black Widow” captured a massive $80 million in its first weekend, crushing the benchmark for the biggest opening weekend since the pandemic.In a first for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the film opened simultaneously in theaters and on Disney Plus as part of the streaming service’s Premier Access offering, where subscribers can rent “Black Widow” for an extra $30.

Angelique Jackson Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson transported audiences back to the late 1960s with a special screening of his new documentary, “Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not be Televised),” at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on Friday night.In its first two weeks in theaters, the musical movie about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival (billed as “a Questlove jawn,” paying homage to the director’s Philly roots) has gone on to make more than $1 million at the box office, plus

FRIDAY AM UPDATE: Refresh for more analysis No, streaming hasn’t killed theatrical just yet, and those exhibitors who’ve gone hungry over the last year and half, received lots of bread last night. Disney/Marvel’s Black Widow kicked off its previews at 5PM earning a huge $13.2M, easily the best preview night to date during the pandemic besting Universal’s F9 ($7.1M) and Paramount’s A Quiet Place Part II ($4.8M).

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterFor the first time in a long time, people are actually going to the movies.After a delayed start to summer, Universal’s action franchise “F9: The Fast Saga,” Paramount’s thriller “A Quiet Place Part II” and the Warner Bros. monster movie “Godzilla vs.

Gregg Goldstein With films from Lin-Manuel Miranda, Bill Murray, Todd Haynes, Leos Carax and others, the Cannes Film Festival, movie theaters and streamers are alive with the sound of music. “It might just be the shuffling of release dates as a result of the pandemic, but 2021 is shaping up to be an embarrassment of riches for fans of movie musicals,” Miranda says.And he should know.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefLocal film “Hard Hit” held on to top spot at the South Korean box office for the second week, keeping Hollywood holdovers and new release titles at bay.The Busan-set action thriller scored $2.07 million in its second weekend on release, according to data from the Kobis tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). That was a drop of only 5% compared with its opening weekend.

Although the box office has yet to fully recover from the pandemic, at least one studio has good reason to celebrate this Fourth of July weekend. Universal Pictures currently has the top three films at the domestic box office with “F9,” “The Boss Baby: Family Business” and “The Forever Purge,” according to studio estimates Sunday.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterIt won’t be a weekend for the record books, but this year’s July 4th holiday box office haul is a marked improvement on the 2020 edition.The box office boost is thanks to a trio of new movies, the kid friendly “The Boss Baby: Family Business,” the gruesome thriller “The Forever Purge,” and the satirical comedy “Zola,” each appealing to vastly different moviegoing audiences.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaDreamWorks Animation’s “The Boss Baby: Family Business” and Blumhouse and Universal’s “The Forever Purge” both netted $1.3 million each in Thursday previews.The two sequels, which appeal to vastly different segments of the moviegoing audience, will likely be overshadowed by the second weekend grosses of “F9,” which is expected to earn roughly $28 million over the July 4th holiday.

Universal’s “The Forever Purge,” the fifth and final movie in “The Purge” horror franchise, and the animated family sequel “The Boss Baby: Family Business,” each made $1.3 million at Thursday preview screenings ahead of the 4th of July weekend. Both films figure to perform strongly over the holiday weekend in theaters, and with “F9” still going strongly, there’s a chance Universal can take the top 3 spots at the box office.

It’s just the latest distribution experiment in a year full of them, and it could lead to some rare sights on this weekend’s charts. Universal notes that if its three current releases take the top three spots on the July 4 charts — and that is very likely considering both new releases are projected for openings of over $10 million — it would become the first studio since 2005 to do a podium sweep of the box office.

After raising the bar on what a movie can open to during the pandemic with F9‘s $70M weekend, Universal is adding a one-two wide release punch to the weekend with the debut of two titles geared at two different demos: DreamWorks Animation’s The Boss Baby: Family Business which is set to do $15M+ and Blumhouse’s The Forever Purge which is looking at $10M+ over 3-days.

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Any other year, it wouldn’t be a massive surprise that a ‘Fast & Furious’ film debuted with a huge box office total. But after a year of basically no theatrical releases and no major blockbusters, the fact that “F9” debuted with a $70 million estimated opening weekend is noteworthy.

Riley Keough has been appearing in films for a decade, and her resume is already incredibly accomplished for someone barely over the age of 30. In fact, with “The Runaways,” “Magic Mike,” “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “American Honey,” “The Lodge,” “Under the Silver Lake” and “The House That Jack Built” it reads like a cinephile’s wet dream.