Space Jam 2 Friday Box Office Scores $32 Million

The Tune Squad and LeBron James have secured the top spot on the box office leaderboard. Space Jam: A New Legacy opened with a $13.1M debut yesterday, and is primed for a $32M opening by the end of the weekend. This will help Warner Bros. clench the top spot of the box office with the long-gestating sequel, beating out the Marvel Cinematic Universe prequel Black Widow, which is expected to come in second with $25.6M.

In third place at the Friday box office was the Sony sequel Escape Room: Tournament of Champions, with a $3.8M debut. The horror film is looking at a $8.66M debut weekend, off a production budget of $15M. Vin Diesel and his family came in fourth, with F9 gathering $2.18M, bringing its domestic total thus far to $151M. Rounding out the top five is Dreamworks’ animated sequel The Boss Baby: Back in Business with $1.47M, the stiffest competition currently in the family entertainment department for Bugs Bunny and King James.

RELATED: 'Space Jam: A New Legacy' Does Justice to the Original by Also Being Terrible | Review

The Friday-to-Friday numbers for Black Widow are significant, as it comes in at a -80% fallout for a standalone film in the long-running franchise. Black Widow opened last weekend with $80M, the biggest box office weekend following the pandemic. The other biggest openings thus far for 2021 lie in F9 with $70M A Quiet Place Part II with $47.5M.

There are a lot of factors to consider with these numbers, particularly Disney’s hybrid release strategy, which allows subscribers of Disney+ to add the superhero picture to their library for $30 via Premier Access. Black Widow brought in $60M from Disney+ on its first weekend, a statistic that provides a significant boost to its overall total. Conversely, Space Jam: A New Legacy is available to HBO Max subscribers at no cost, though it appears so far that most fans are opting to see this one on the big screen, negative reviews aside.

James and the team at Warner Bros are clearly happy about this news, as evidenced by his latest tweet. The first Space Jam opened with $27.5M in 1996, for a domestic total of roughly $90M. Even with a 25 year difference, Warner Bros. is likely ecstatic about the sequel’s opening numbers, especially when considering the pandemic. The Tune Squad will likely get a bit more time to dribble the ball in their court, as the next closest piece of family entertainment doesn’t drop for two weeks, with Disney releasing Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt's Jungle Cruise.

See James' tweet below:

KEEP READING: 'Space Jam: A New Legacy's' Cedric Joe on What It's Really Like Filming with the Looney Tunes

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By: John Lutz
Title: Space Jam 2 Friday Box Office Scores $32 Million
Sourced From: collider.com/space-jam-2-friday-box-office/
Published Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2021 19:56:16 GMT