Warner Bros.’ Space Jam: A New Legacy unexpectedly shot it’s way to the top of the box office.
The LeBron James led remake of 1996’s Space Jam which featured basketball legend Micheal Jordan was released in cinemas and HBO Max over the weekend. The movie had a better-than-expected domestic debut of $31.7 million from 3,956 theaters, beating Marvel Studios’ “Black Widow,” which earned an estimated $26.2 million in its second weekend.
That exceeded industry expectations, with the film projected to bring in closer to $20 million for its debut.
Even though critics shot down the movie with a 31% Rotten Tomatoes score, it seems like audiences loved it. A New Legacy has an A- score on CinemaScore along with a 3.5/5 rating on Postrak. It also got an 81% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Space Jam: A New Legacy gives Warner studios its best post-pandemic opening for any family film. The movie is also the strongest opening weekend for any Warner release since the $31.6 million weekend of “Godzilla vs. Kong” back in April.
The film, reportedly had a $150 million production budget.
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Another reason why the box office numbers are surprising is because it was also released on HBO Max at no extra charge to subscribers on the same day it was released in theaters. Normally,this would discourage cinema-goers from going out when they could just stay home and stream.
Space Jam: A New Legacy synopsis
Basketball superstar, LeBron James and his young son Dom are trapped in a digital space by a rogue A.I. To get home safely, James has to team up with Bugs Bunny, Lola Bunny, Daffy Duck and the whole gang of notoriously undisciplined Looney Tunes for a basketball game against the A.I.’s digitized champions. Their opponents, a powered-up roster of professional basketball stars called the Goon Squad.
