If you’ve paid attention to the box office the last couple of weeks, the number have not been good for Black Widow. After a pandemic record-breaking start, the film has had some epic drops and so far has earned “just” $314M worldwide. So the timing on this news, while maybe unconnected, is probably the right idea at the right moment.
Black Widow will hit all digital platforms on August 10th, followed by Bluray, Ultra 4K HD, and DVD on September 14th. A total of nine deleted scenes will be included. Is this Disney just giving up on the film’s theatrical run, or what? Maybe, maybe not. Disney has been moving quickly to get blockbusters out there as much as possible. Raya and the Last Dragon sat in the top 10 earners for ages, but it, like Mulan, hit all digital platforms after a month and physical media soon after.
We don’t know the numbers for Black Widow through Disney Premier Access. They might be tremendous, but as it stands the film is the second-lowest theatrical release for Marvel Studios. It makes the box office prospects of Eternals, Shang-Chi, and other Marvel films very uncertain.
The biggest bit of awesome I took from the panel was that, unlike the recent film remake, they’re keeping the supernatural aspect of it all. Moreover, it’s a continuation of Child’s Play 2, following Andy and his step/foster sister Kyle as they navigate a new swath of terror cut by the world’s worst Christmas present. This means nostalgia galore. No redesign of the face (though, I didn’t mind the remakes changes), no techno-horror slant, just good old fashioned voodoo-enabled murder rampages. Oh, almost forgot the most important part…Brad Dourif, the original voice of Chucky, is back to voice the doll as well.
The footage we get splattered through out the behind the scenes stuff, coupled with the trailer at the tail end of the video have got me hyped. Yes, for the nostalgia stuff, but also because this was not hastily put together. It’s a group of people that get what made Child’s Play the source of every kid’s nightmares that was born between ’75 and ’85. The dichotomy between Chucky being friendly and, basically, grooming a kid during a video game session, and Chucky in full on murderistic glee is what made this series terrifying and it’s on full display here. Past that, the show appears to be shot incredibly well, making full use of angling to highlight Chucky’s size while still maintaining the primal fear we seem to have of dolls in general. The featured image in this article is my exhibit A.
