Space Jam: A New Legacy’s opening weekend at the box office was surprisingly good enough to unseat Black Widow’s second weekend.
Twenty-five years after Michael Jordan starred in the original Space Jam, Warner Bros and LeBron James took the franchise in an entirely new direction.
Space Jam: A New Legacy is not directly tied to the 1996 movie, but it does repeat a very similar formula. NBA superstar LeBron James is coerced into playing a basketball game with Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes that will decide their fates.
An LBJ- led Space Jam movie has long been anticipated and expected, but in true social media age fashion that didn’t stop the skepticism from surfacing about the movie when it finally started moving forward.
With the movie 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 specifically rang true when the reviews dropped and mostly criticized the film as an extended ad for HBO Max’s library of content.
What a difference a premiere makes as it appertains those fortunes have changed once the movie became available for audiences to consume.
Hi Haters! 😁 https://t.co/ayPGnBZGQU
— LeBron James (@KingJames) July 17, 2021
The latest box office numbers also sing a different tune, revealing the movie opened incredibly strong with $13.1 million for opening day. It estimates earning over $32 million this weekend making it the box-office champ, beating out Black Widow ($25M estimated for its second weekend) by roughly $7M.
The weekend box office results are a direct reflection of Space Jam: A New Legacy overperforming. Nothing more, nothing less. Its opening weekend is a new pandemic record for Warner Bros., whose Godzilla vs Kong’s $28.2M opening was the previous high. It also topped the original Space Jam’s $27.5M opening weekend way back in 1996.
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 is available on HBO Max, which could hurt its legs a bit and Warner Bros needs the movie to be a big hit.
With a budget of $150M, a low $30M opening weekend would usually be detrimental to the movie’s success. But we’re in living the pandemic era and box offices are still trying to get back to pre-pandemic numbers. So winning the weekend, while beating Black Widow should be e small victory Bron and the team.
