'Space Jam: A New Legacy' Makes A Surprise Slam Dunk At The Weekend Box Office

LeBron James and the Tune Squad made an impressive showing at the box office over the weekend with Space Jam: A New Legacy dethroning Marvel's Black Widow from the top of the charts. Early projections had the live-action/animated hybrid sequel bringing in around $20 million in its opening weekend, but the film surprised industry experts by raking in $31.6 million. Not bad for a sequel with 31% on Rotten Tomatoes, a streaming release on HBO Max, and the hurdle of an ongoing pandemic.Variety has the Space Jam 2 box office numbers that pushed the sequel over Marvel's Black Widow, which was expected to hold the top spot for one more weekend. Though $31.6 million wouldn't be an opening weekend to celebrate for a movie like this in the days before COVID-19 steamrolled across the globe, it's a solid box office debut for a wide release that also has a simultaneous streaming launch, not to mention hesitant audiences who aren't ready to go back to theaters just yet.Space Jam: A New Legacy is also the largest family film debut of the pandemic, surpassing The Croods: A New Age, Tom and Jerry, The Boss Baby: Family Business, Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, and Spirit Untamed, all of which failed to make anywhere near as big of a dent on the charts.

In second place, Black Widow managed to earn another $26.3 million. That's a 67% decline from the opening weekend haul of $80 million, but the second weekend decline is bound to be bigger when the movie is also available on Disney+ Premier Access, audiences are largely staying away from theaters, and hardcore fans have already seen the movie in the first week. Repeat viewings aren't as frequent as they normally would be if the coronavirus pandemic wasn't still in play. Even with that drop, Black Widow has still earned $131 million domestically and $264 million worldwide, but in general, that's not great for a Marvel Studios blockbuster.

Third place on the box office charts goes to Escape Room: Tournament of Champions, which landed far away from the top two spots. The sequel's $8.8 million isn't that great of an opening weekend, especially when the first movie made $18 million back in 2019, finishing with $57 million overall. That could be bad news for anyone hoping to see the franchise continue to a third movie, but since the sequel only cost $15 million to make, there's a chance it still ends up being profitable enough to continue.

F9 hung on for fourth place in the box office with $7.6 million earned it its fourth weekend of release. Normally, the numbers for a sequel that big wouldn't have dropped so much, but as we've said, the coronavirus pandemic continues to keep larger crowds away. As of now, the sequel has brought in $154 million domestically, and the worldwide total is on the verge of passing $600 million.

Finally, Universal Pictures also has the fifth place spot on the charts with The Boss Baby: Family Business hanging on with another $4.7 million. The animated sequel has a total of $44 million after three weeks in theaters, but the movie was also released on Peacock day-and-date with the theatrical release, and there's no telling just how much that offset the usual family box office haul.

You can check out the full chart for last weekend over at Box Office Mojo.