Black Widow generated $60 million through Disney+ Premier Access on opening weekend

[Shawn Knight]

Editor's take: If nothing else, Disney’s willingness to talk about Premier Access numbers for Black Widow (this is the first time they’ve publicly shared these stats) is interesting. The film and theater industry suffered greatly during the pandemic last year, forcing studios and theater owners to improvise in order to survive. Premier Access is the product of such outside-the-box thinking, and this past weekend’s results demonstrate that in-home, on-demand streaming is a viable alternative, should the theater industry continue to struggle.

Marvel Studios’ Black Widow made a big splash both at the box office and at home during opening weekend, raking in an estimated total of more than $215 million. But it’s the breakdown of that number that is of particular interest.

The Walt Disney Company said the film generated $80 million at the box office domestically and another $78 million at the international box office. An additional $60 million came courtesy of Disney+ Premier Access, the company’s premium on-demand offering that allows viewers to watch from the comfort of their home for a one-time fee of $29.99 (on top of the cost of a Disney+ subscription).

Disney noted that Black Widow was the largest domestic box office opening since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and the largest domestic opening weekend since Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker in December 2019. What’s more, it was the highest domestic opening weekend for a Marvel Cinematic Universe origin story behind Captain Marvel and Black Panther.

Doing some quick math, we can determine that an estimated two million users opted to rent Black Widow through Disney+ over the weekend.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/90389-black-widow-generated-60-million-through-disney-premier.html

 

[QuantumPhysics]

How much does it generate over Frostwire?

 

[Dimitriid]

You know, I was reading about this record-setting premiere and I was deeply concerned: only a handful of rich countries actually have enough vaccinated citizens to even support movie theaters opening at all and most countries experiencing third waves shouldn't have had a premiere at all.

But this news about digital rental seems more plausible. And not a bad idea actually: yes cinema purists will complain about the experience of a big screen until your ears bleed. But they also go buy those Criterion collection bluerays too, most of them for movies that are too old for them to have actually experienced in theaters.

Just buy popcorn, a 65 inch TV and 2 to 4 of your good friends for movie nights, no need to risk a movie theater right now and no need to pay unreasonable amounts in tickets and popcorn prices when 90% of the movies are honestly not worth it *that much* anyway.

Time to remove the "direct to video" stigma.

 

[VitalyT]

for a one-time fee of $29.99

HFS! These new Marvel releases start to follow the Star Wars pattern, with each next getting worse than ones before. Anyone who paid money for this disaster action flick was ripped off. I thought that at most it was worth downloading a high-quality torrent to check it out. It was available in 4K in torrents from day one. I wouldn't pay $1 for it, it wasn't good at all - all action, no brain.

 

[Kosmoz]

@title: If one believes Disney, that is.

I don't, even if it's true, they lied and did so many shitty things that I don't care about them or what they say.

Disney and all the other culprits that are destroying movie/comics franchises, need to go bankrupt. Sadly, it will probably not gonna happen... meh.

 

[bandit8623]

Can't believe people paid the 30$... Sad as this will be the future.. pay for the same service twice to get a movie.

 

[Irata]

Out of curiosity: If I were stupid enough to pay $30 for the movie on top of my monthly subscription - what happens when I cancel the subscription ? Can I still watch the movie ?

 

[Stark]

Piracy was actually going down when it was just Netflix, then market suddenly divided into numerous services, I have Netflix, Disney+, Prime, and few of the local content provider on subscription.
I am not going to pay a dime for "renting" over and above subscription. If companies want to use "microtransaction" or pay per view, then the service itself should be free.

Also, I am not going to subscribe to any more services, especially when the combined cost is exceeding cable on a monthly basis.

Another issue is of regional locking of content, which I find very infuriating.

All these issues are once again making piracy increase. I am more than happy to pay for content, but the current market makes is extremely difficult to do so.

 

[Burty117]

Out of curiosity: If I were stupid enough to pay $30 for the movie on top of my monthly subscription - what happens when I cancel the subscription ? Can I still watch the movie ?

From what I've been told by friends and family no, you lose access to the movie, that £30 is basically just to unlock the ability to watch the movie on the service (early mind you, it'll go on the service in a few months as part of your subscription fee)

 

[DefaultD]

Can't believe people paid the 30$... Sad as this will be the future.. pay for the same service twice to get a movie.

If you've got kids and Disney+ and would normally go see this at the movies, just renting at home is so much more convenient (and cheaper) than taking the family to the movies (especially since younger kids can't get vaccinated yet).

 

[Eric Mozzone]

At first, I thought to myself, man that's a shame for the movie theater companies. Then, I remembered how much a Coke and Popcorn costs from the theater and now I'm like YEAH, STICK IT TO EM'