The marvel universe has a huge fan following in India, and it isn’t only about the Avengers series, but individual superhero series as well that have done phenomenally well on the big screen and that too in multiple languages. Black Widow starring Scarlett Johansson was no exception, and fans were eagerly awaiting its release last year on April 30 before the pandemic struck and deferred its dates repeatedly. The movie was finally released across theatres in the USA, UK, and other markets on July 9. Since most of the theatres in India are currently shut, it was assumed that the movie would release once the situation normalizes. However, everyone is surprised by the announcement made by Disney+Hotstar that Black Widow will be out on the OTT platform soon. There would have been a possibility that the movie would make a theatre release first and then hit Disney+Hotstar, but as per a source, the movie will not make it to the big screen in India. There is no consistency in the situation as of now, and nobody knows when the cinemas would reopen and if people would turn up for the film. Hence the decision was taken to release Black Widow directly on OTT. The team at Disney India is yet to take a call on the exact date of its release, but it will be somewhere in the second half of August. The announcement on this is expected to be in the final week of July. As per a trade expert, last month, when the COVID-19 cases were on a steady decline, it was expected that Hollywood biggies would bring in audiences to watch the movies in theatres, and this would in-turn help Bollywood filmmaker’s as well. Black Widow was one of those movies everybody was banking on.
