Black Widow Kills at the Box Office
Black Widow officially took over from F9: The Fast Saga to become not only the highest-grossing film of the weekend but also the biggest movie opening of the year. According to the Box Office Mojo, Marvel’s latest superhero spectacular earned almost $80,4 million in its inaugural weekend. The studio initially slated the film to come out on May 1, 2020, but postponed it several times due to the pandemic. The movie finally came out both in cinemas and on Disney Plus. And here’s the funny thing: Marvel revealed Black Widow earned $60 million from Disney Plus premier access tier. This isn’t the kind of info streaming companies offer willingly. It will be interesting to see if this trend will continue.
In second place at the last weekend’s box office is F9: The Fast Saga with $11,4 million and a total worldwide gross of over $544 million. CGI-animated kid film The Boss Baby: Family Business is in third with $8,9 million and a total gross of $39 million. The top five list of the weekend closes off with two horror movies. Horror thriller The Forever Purge is in fourth place with $7,1 million ($36,5 million total). A Quiet Place Part II is in fifth with $3,2 million and a total global gross of $279,6 million.
2021 Emmy Awards Nominees Announced
This week, The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced its list of nominees for the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards. Nominees were presented at a live event led by Ron Cephas Jones (This Is Us), his daughter Jasmine Cephas Jones (Blindspotting), and the Television Academy Chairman and CEO Frank Scherma. This ceremony introduced some changes like a new category for stunt performers and a category for the best anthology series.
Just as with this year’s Academy Awards, some favorites weren’t eligible for nominations since they weren’t finished in time due to pandemic restrictions. Critical darlings and fan favorites like HBO’s Succession, Netflix’s Stranger Things, or Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel won’t be eligible for nominations. This should make the awards a bit more interesting.
In addition, there is a decent number of sci-fi and horror shows among nominees. For example, Amazon’s superhero show The Boys received a nomination for The Outstanding Drama Series. Disney Plus’ Star Wars show The Mandalorian received a whopping 24 nominations, while WandaVision got 23. HBO’s horror series Lovecraft Country got 18 nominations, while the dystopian sci-fi series The Handmaid‘s Tale earned 11 nods.
The 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards will air on CBS on September 19. The full list of nominees can be seen here.
Universal Signs Licensing Deals with Amazon Prime, IMDb TV, And Netflix
Last week, we reported Universal signed a new licensing deal with the streaming service Peacock. The agreement gave the streaming service so-called pay-one window rights for new titles. From January 2022, Universal films will first arrive at cinemas and then, after four months, premiere on Peacock. After four months on Peacock, they will become available to other Universal partners.
But who are those partners? Well, now we know. For the past fifteen years, Universal has had a distribution deal with HBO. According to an article by Deadline, the studio signed a new agreement with Amazon Prime and IMDb TV. Each new Universal film will play in movie theaters for four months. Then, it will go to Peacock for another four months. Then, Amazon Prime and IMDb TV get exclusive rights lasting ten months. Finally, the rights revert to Peacock for the final four months, after which titles become available to others.
As part of this wheeling and dealing, Universal also signed a deal with Netflix regarding the studio’s animated films. Having access to the world’s largest streaming service is nothing to sneer at. Under the new multi-year agreement, Netflix will be streaming popular cartoon franchises like Despicable Me, Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar, Shrek, and more. However, Netflix will get new titles only after Peacock’s exclusive four-month window. And as for the latest live-action movies by Universal, well, Netflix will have to wait. For four years, to be exact.
