By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Disney (NYSE:DIS) rose more than 2% Monday after the pandemic era’s record box office sales by Marvel's Black Widow over the weekend.
The movie, starring Scarlett Johansson in the title role, grossed $80 million in the U.S. and Canada, according to preliminary estimates.
The movie also collected $78 million overseas, bringing its world-wide box office total to $158 million.
Disney on Sunday released Thursday to Sunday opening-weekend online sales data for Black Widow, saying the film also generated more than $60 million globally through its direct-to-consumer Disney+ platform. While the company has to share about half of revenue from movie-theater ticket sales, it keeps all of the revenue from its digital sales.
Black Widow is the first Marvel film Disney has released to theaters in more than two years.
The success of the movie is a shot-in-the-arm for the entire entertainment industry as it comes after more than a year of the pandemic when all multiplexes and film shoots were shut.