Space Jam: A New Legacy's opening weekend at the box office beats Black Widow's second weekend. Twenty-five years after Michael Jordan starred in the original Space Jam, Warner Bros. and LeBron James are taking the franchise in a new direction. Space Jam: A New Legacy is not directly tied to the 1996 movie, but it does repeat a similar formula. NBA superstar LeBron James is coerced into playing a basketball game with Bugd Bunny and the Looney Tunes that will decide their fates.
A LeBron-led Space Jam movie has long been anticipated and expected, but that didn't stop plenty of skepticism from surfacing about the movie when it finally started moving forward. With Space Jam: A New Legacy also available for free to HBO Max subscribers and Marvel Studios opening Black Widow last week to pandemic record-setting numbers, it appeared that WB and LeBron could be in trouble when it came to the movie's box office. This was especially true when the reviews dropped and mostly criticized the film as an extended ad for HBO Max's library of content.
It now appears Space Jam: A New Legacy's fortunes have turned once audiences could actually begin seeing the movie. The latest box office numbers from Deadline reveal the movie opened incredibly strong with a $13.1 million opening day. This now gives Space Jam: A New Legacy estimates to earn over $32M in its opening weekend, which will make it the weekend box office champ. Black Widow is on track to come in second place and make over $25M in its second weekend.
This weekend's box office results are due to Space Jam: A New Legacy overperforming. Tracking continued to point to Black Widow earning in the mid-$20M range, which it did. Space Jam: A New Legacy was expected to only make $20M in its opening weekend, though. The movie is crushing that expectation after earning an A- Cinemascore from audiences venturing to theaters to check out LeBron's movie. Space Jam 2's opening weekend is also a new pandemic record for Warner Bros., as Godzilla vs. Kong's $28.2M opening was the studio's previous high. The new movie also topped Space Jam's original $27.5M opening weekend.
Now that Space Jam: A New Legacy has opened above expectations, it will be fascinating to see how its box office run continues. The movie being available on HBO Max could hurt its legs and WB needs the movie to be a big hit. Space Jam 2 reportedly has a budget of $150M, so a low-$30M opening weekend is not the start anyone wanted when the movie was first announced. However, since the box office is still trying to get back to pre-pandemic numbers, Space Jam: A New Legacy winning the weekend and beating Black Widow should be a small victory for the movie.
Source: Deadline
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