Rebecca Rubin reports in Variety that Movie Theater Owners Blame Marvel’s ‘Black Widow’ Box Office ‘Collapse’ on Disney Plus Launch.

She writes, “Movie theater operators did not mince words in asserting that Disney left money on the table by putting Marvel’s “Black Widow” on Disney Plus on the same day as its theatrical debut.”

The theatre owners are concerned about Disney+ password sharing and digital pirating. Of course, they don’t get a cut of any legitimate streaming revenue as well.

According to The Numbers, the 14-month delayed Black Widow earned $80,366,312 on its first domestic weekend and a total of $314,906,683 internationally after 16 days.

Compare those numbers with the 12-month delayed F9: The Fast Saga that earned $70,043,165 on it first domestic weekend and a total of $621,096,825 internationally after 30 days.

So even though Black Widow bested F9 on its opening weekend, it has earned only half as much in total to date.

Is this because F9 has been out for twice as long? No. In my opinion, the difference is explained by the fact that Black Widow has yet to be released in China.

Variety has also reported:

“Beijing tends to program Hollywood blockbusters sparingly in the key moviegoing month of July to carve out space for local productions. This year, its resistance to scheduling foreign films has been exacerbated by the critical 100th anniversary of the ruling Communist Party’s founding on July 1. The occasion has been accompanied by an ongoing, months-long period of militant censorship across all media that will last through the end of the month and likely into fall.”

Back to The Numbers to see F9 earned $216,935,000 in China — this in the five weeks before its release in North America.

Comparing the two movies side by side, we see international box office for F9 is $457,800,000 versus only $160,100,000 for Black Widow.

My take: the moral of the story is: don’t release a blockbuster in July.