From left, Lebron James and Bugs Bunny in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY.”
Warner Bros. Pictures*LeBron James is king of the box office this weekend, where Space Jam: A New Legacy is doing better than expected with its domestic debut reaching $32 million from 3,956 theaters, easily enough to bench holdover Black Widow.
The big-budget sequel to the 1996 classic movie grossed $13.2 million on Friday (July 16), while Black Widow fell a huge 80 percent to $8 million on its second Friday for a projected sophomore outing in the $26 million-$27 million range from 4,275 locations.
Space Jam 2 is on course to score the biggest opening for a family title in the pandemic-era despite poor reviews, growing concerns over the Delta variant and new mask mandates in L.A. County that kick in at midnight Saturday.
Heading into the weekend, Warner Bros. expected Space Jam 2 to open in the $20 million range. That would have been a problematic start for a movie that cost a reported $150 million to make. The film is being buoyed by an A- CinemaScore and an ethnically diverse audience.
The live-action/animated movie is also available on HBO Max. (Black Widow is likewise playing in the home via Disney Premier Access.)
In Space Jam 2, Brown encounters a plethora of classic Warner Bros. characters. Michael Jordan starred in the first Space Jam, which debuted to roughly $27 million without adjusting for inflation.
Black Widow is facing a huge drop in is second weekend of 65 percent-70 percent. The Marvel pic will still come in No. 2, followed by Sony’s Escape Room: Champion of Tournaments. The sequel opened to $3.8 million on Friday for projected $8.7 million weekend.
At the specialty box office, the new documentary Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain will make the top 10 with a projected weekend opening of $1.7 million or more for Focus Features after earning $760,000 on Friday from 927 theaters.
The doc about the famous chef, who died in 2018, sparked a debate over ethical issues last week when director Morgan Neville revealed he had used artificial intelligence to create a version of Bourdain’s voice for about 45 seconds.
NEWS
Brad Paisley has called Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding “one of the least pretentious weddings he’s ever seen”.
The country star attended the ceremony alongside his actress wife, Kimberly Williams-Paisley. They joined around 1,000 guests at New York City’s Madison Square Garden earlier this month as the global pop icon married the American football star.
Although the celebration attracted enormous attention and involved tight security and a stunning makeover of the famous arena, Paisley said the occasion never came across as excessive.
“Ironically, (it) was one of the least pretentious weddings that I've ever seen or ever will see,” Paisley told The Associated Press during an interview. “It meant a lot to be (invited). It was, kind of, a big thank you from her to invite us.”
Paisley, who chose Swift as an opening performer for his tour when she was a teenager in 2007, said he was delighted to be included in what many considered the biggest celebrity wedding of the year.
“They were very clear with the invite, and I took this personally when I got the invite, because in the invite, it said, ‘If you're getting this, you mean a lot to us,’” he revealed.
The musician also explained that guests were not told the wedding’s exact location until the date drew nearer.
“It was really fun to watch the cat and mouse game of, like, ‘We can tell you roughly where it's going to be, we're not gonna say what building... and here's the date. If you're in, we'll tell you more,’” he continued. “I went to my wife, I said, ‘Want to go?’ and she said, ‘Absolutely, we gotta be there!’ So, we did it, it was RSVP yes.”
Other famous attendees included Brad Pitt, Gigi Hadid, Bradley Cooper, Ed Sheeran, Sabrina Carpenter, Hugh Grant, Haim and Tom Hanks.
