'Black Widow' Pulls in $13.2 Million on Thursday for a Pandemic-Best Preview Night Box Office

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is coming back to theaters with Black Widow, and early estimate numbers tell us that the pandemic didn’t affect the popularity of the MCU. Even if all theaters aren’t operating at full capacity yet, the solo adventure of Scarlett Johansson’s super-spy is on track to be the most successful release since the beginning of the pandemic.

With Black Widow estimates putting preview night U.S. box office at $13.2 million, the new MCU dethrones the already impressive results of F9, which got $7.1 million on its first Thursday. The numbers are not only high for pandemic metrics but also in comparison to other MCU movies. As an example, Ant-Man and the Wasp hauled $11.5 million on preview night, while Guardians of the Galaxy only reached $11.2 million. Early predictions also project a box office between $80 million and $90 million for a 3-day start. That doesn’t take into consideration 41 international markets where the movie is already available, including France, Russia, Australia, Japan, and Brazil.