739 days after Spider-Man: Far From Home, Black Widow has finally been released and brought the MCU back to the big screen. On its opening Thursday night of previews, the Scarlett Johansson solo film made $13.2 million domestically, setting itself up for a promising theatrical run.
Black Widow marks the second female-led solo film in Marvel Studios history, the first being Brie Larson's Captain Marvel in 2019. This high-action, family-driven story has been received well among fans and critics.
Rotten Tomatoes has Black Widow Certified Fresh with a critical score of 80% and an audience score of 92%.
Now, another popular online metric for movie reviews has just released its official score for Black Widow.
BLACK WIDOW RANKED LOWER THAN IRON MAN 2
CinemaScore released its official audience rating of Marvel Studios' Black Widow. The Scarlett Johansson solo film was given an A-, a lower rating than the likes of Iron Man 2, Ant-Man, and Avengers: Age of Ultron.
CinemaScore polls moviegoers after the opening night of major releases to calculate their grades.
The official announcement for Black Widow via CinemaScore can be seen below:
The lowest grade an MCU movie has ever been given by CinemaScore is an A-. The A- movies that Black Widow is joining are The Incredible Hulk, Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor: The Dark World, and Ant-Man and the Wasp.
Here are all the MCU CinemaScore grades from 2008-2021:
- Iron Man: A
- The Incredible Hulk: A-
- Iron Man 2: A
- Thor: B+
- Captain America: The First Avenger: A-
- The Avengers: A+
- Iron Man 3: A
- Thor: The Dark World: A-
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier: A
- Guardians of the Galaxy: A
- Avengers: Age of Ultron: A
- Ant-Man: A
- Captain America: Civil War: A
- Doctor Strange: A
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: A
- Spider-Man: Homecoming: A
- Thor: Ragnarok: A
- Black Panther: A+
- Avengers: Infinity War: A
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: A-
- Captain Marvel: A
- Avengers: Endgame: A+
- Spider-Man: Far From Home: A
- Black Widow: A-
IS BLACK WIDOW A BAD MARVEL MOVIE?
Warning - This section contains spoilers for Black Widow.
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios have set an incredibly high bar with their cinematic universe. The fact that there has only been one B-rated movie (2011's Thor), according to CinemaScore, is impressive.
The only movies to receive A+'s are The Avengers, Black Panther, and Avengers: Endgame. With most of the MCU movies receiving an A, why did Black Widow perform worse?
A reason many fans may point to is the underuse or misuse of the film's primary villain, Taskmaster. Another fault of Black Widow many have pointed to is that it minimally pushes the greater MCU forward into Phase 4.
Florence Pugh being set up to appear in the Hawkeye series is the only obvious setup for the future. Other than that, this movie acts more as a prequel that gives fans a detailed look at Natasha Romanoff's history and sets her journey up for Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame.
It does come as a surprise to see this movie given a lower grade than divisive movies like Captain Marvel, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Iron Man 2. These are three films that received As, yet have been labeled disappointments by some fans. Is Black Widow a letdown? For someone expecting a world-building, one-of-a-kind MCU flick, it may be.
A- is still an extremely positive score overall, just in the lower tier for the MCU on CinemaScore. Is this a bottom-tier Marvel movie? That's for the fans to decide.
Black Widow is now playing in theaters around the world and streaming on Disney+ via Premier Access.
