'Black Widow' Box Office Success Tempered by Disney+ Availability: Colliers

North American consumers returned to theaters in big numbers to drive Disney's Black Widow to an $80 million opening weekend, the best of the pandemic era, but it suffered a 68% box office drop in the second weekend due to streaming availability on Disney+, Colliers analyst Steven Frankel wrote investors Monday. Shrinking windows, premium VOD experiments and the recent spike in COVID-19 cases across the U.S. “increase the level of uncertainty around the shape of the box office recovery and what a ‘new normal’ will be," said Frankel. Noting two-thirds of Imax’s box office is generated outside of North America, Colliers said he believes Imax’s premium movie experience, strong ties to influential filmmakers and its large global network “set the stage for a rebound" in the second half 2021 and into 2022, when it will take advantage of pent-up demand. Imax reported better-than-expected Q2 box office results, at $108.6 million, above Colliers’ estimate of $80 million. The analyst modeled Q2 revenue of $45.3 million. Imax reports earnings Tuesday.