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Main actress Johansson in "Black Widow": Long-awaited blockbuster success
Photo: Jay Maidment / Disney / AP
Probably no heroine was better suited to revive the cinema than this superheroine with her irrepressible dynamism and her dry wit. The film "Black Widow" with Scarlett Johansson in the title role has grossed almost 159 million dollars at box offices around the world since last Thursday. It is by far the best opening result of a Hollywood film since the beginning of the pandemic. In Germany just over 200,000 spectators came in the first few days. However, it could have been significantly more.
Quite a few German film theaters refused to play "Black Widow".
Disney, the parent company of Marvel Studios, has been imposing tough conditions on cinemas for years.
In addition, he will be releasing many of his films this year at the same time on his streamer Disney +, including »Black Widow«.
The film theaters defend with great vehemence a regulation that guarantees them an exclusive exploitation for some time.
Decent numbers despite boycott
In times of pandemics, not using »Black Widow« is a tricky decision. The figures from China, where gaming operations normalized long ago, and the USA show how important blockbusters are for the restart of the cinema. Nevertheless, over a million viewers came to German film theaters last weekend, although this is significantly fewer than in the time before Corona, but the best weekend since spring 2020, as the industry magazine »Blickpunkt Film« reports.
Given that a restart in the middle of summer and during the European Football Championship was a double handicap, the numbers are quite encouraging. Around three quarters of all German cinemas have now reopened, and the results vary greatly from region to region. Above all, the obligation to test, which still exists in some federal states, but no longer in others, is clearly proving to be an obstacle.
The monster film "Godzilla vs. Kong", which has been shown exclusively in theaters in Germany since the beginning of July and has grossed $ 460 million since its worldwide launch in March, attracted around 136,000 viewers last weekend, a rather disappointing result. It turns out that »Black Widow«, which was due to start in spring 2020, was eagerly awaited by viewers. But how many of them actually saw the film on the couch at home instead of in the cinema?
Disney has now announced for the first time how much money the streamer made with a film in the first few days: 60 million dollars were raised for "Black Widow".
Disney + subscribers can view it for an additional fee.
The advantage for Disney: The company does not have to share this money with the cinemas.
On the other hand, industry analysts are currently calculating how many cinema viewers and total revenues the simultaneous streaming service could cost.
The losses could be enormous.
The cinema business is still pretty lucrative
Either way, it turns out that you can still earn a lot of money with the cinema - and despite the hygiene rules that still exist, not that much less than before the pandemic. An industry expert had estimated that the horror film "A Quiet Place 2", which was supposed to open in March 2020 but was postponed because of the pandemic, would gross $ 170 to 200 million in the United States. In the end, the sequel didn't hit theaters until May of this year and is now at $ 150 million.
In Germany, however, it is also evident that an oversupply with around 40 theatrical releases in just two weeks leads to brutal cutthroat competition. Many films that have been on since the beginning of the month fall by the wayside, even a $ 60 million production like "Monster Hunter" only had a meager 17,000 viewers on the first weekend. As was feared, the film jam leads to cannibalization. If the cinema manages to join forces, it can find its way back to old strength.