



But Marvel Studios movies come with a pristine box office track record across 23 features. Yet the sense, at least from rival studio executives, is that Disney wasn’t initially planning to release streaming revenues. So why now? Why this movie?ĭisney declined to comment. Which made it all the more shocking when Disney shattered the the industry-wide omerta over streaming data by announcing that “Black Widow” made $60 million on streaming VOD. 1” on HBO Max without any sense of how many people actually got it to that position.) reported in January that upon its release “The Little Things,” the suspense thriller starring Denzel Washington and Rami Malek, “immediately shot up to No. At least, not in a way that carry any context. and Disney, have been releasing movies day-and-date on streaming platforms and in theaters for roughly a year now, and while they have dutifully reported box office revenue each week, they’ve never divulged actual VOD numbers. Hollywood studios, namely Universal, Warner Bros. The only two certainties in life are death and taxes, but if Mark Twain were alive in the year of our lord 2021, he could have added a third: opaque streaming service metrics. Why did Disney decide to release its VOD numbers? Here are the biggest questions in the wake of “Black Widow” and its pandemic record ticket sales.

But it also left the industry pondering why Disney would suddenly reverse course - and what, if any, precedent this sets for the future. The disclosure was a surprising, refreshing expression of transparency in a sector that has fiercely guarded audience data.
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It reported that “Black Widow” had earned $60 million on Disney Plus worldwide, in addition to the $158 million it earned at the global box office. Or so everyone thought.īut then on Sunday morning, Disney did what other studios had only teased: putting an actual figure on the movie’s digital revenues. And that’s on top of whatever revenue the film was making on Disney Plus Premier Access, not that Disney would ever share that figure. That would have been on par with the best debuts for a standalone Marvel adventure. “Black Widow” had pulled in a mighty $39.5 million on Friday, putting the film on track to end the weekend with $100 million. And yet, in a theatrical landscape still grappling with the pandemic, anything is possible.īy Saturday, the film’s financial outlook appeared to be bright. After all, Marvel has yet to misstep at the box office. It seemed like a no brainer that “Black Widow” would be a hit.
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At the same time, Disney Plus subscribers could rent the movie for $30, a first for the MCU. The Disney film, starring Scarlett Johansson in her (likely) final performance as Natasha Romanoff, was the first movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe to open in theaters in two years.
