Everyone has those happy places that they go to when they need. It could be a part of their house, or it could be a certain object like their favorite book that they read when they want to escape. I also have my happy place and for the first time since December 2019 when I went and saw “Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker”, I have felt comfortable enough to head back to it, it is the movie theater.
A lot of my favorite memories as a child are going to the movies. My childhood movie theater was the Fox 12, which was part of McFarland Mall, which also had a great food court and arcade to play in. One of my earliest memories was going and seeing the first Pokemon movie ever to come out. You would get this “limited edition” Ancient Mew card. I was blown away that this cartoon I would watch on Saturdays as a kid cold be so big and fantastical.
Another great memory of the movie theater was when we went and saw "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King". My brothers and I were in a packed theater ready to sit there for over 3 hours. I was definitley too young for that movie to make an impact on me till later in life, but I remember how proud I was that I could make it through the whole movie with out having to leave and go to the restroom.
Movie Theaters are the one place for me where what is happening around me kinda fades away. Usually having a phone or something connected on you makes it hard to escape the news, or the constant treadmill of information. Even when I am watching something at home, I notice myself glancing at my phone just to check something, but with the movie theater all of those distractions just kinda go away. Nothing outside of watching the movie in that room matters, I could be having the worst day and all of that disappears when the trailers start.
Black Widow is the first Marvel movie since July 2019 when Spider-Man Far From Home came out. What was supposed to be a small break of about a little less than a year became a 2 year break from Marvel at the theaters because of COVID-19. Black Widow went through about 3 delays before Disney finally declared it okay enough for it to open in theaters (it’s also available on Disney + Premier Access)
At this point with Marvel movies, you will know whether it is something you should go see or not. Black Widow does not revolutionize the wheel when it comes to action movies, but it also does not need to. Just like me returning to the movie theater is me returning to my happy place, it works the same way for Marvel. Black Widow did $158.8M worldwide ($80M was domestic), which through the lens of the box office in a post-COVID world is very good. Add on to the announced numbers from Disney that Black Widow did $60M on Disney + Premier Access, and Disney should be able to count this return as a pretty good success.
You don’t realize how much you miss something till you have to go a long time without it, and that is how if felt going back to the movie theater after 19 months. After all of that time, I am just glad to have my happy place back and hopefully it does not go away for a very long time.