The performance of “Black Widow” builds on the recent success of the latest “Fast & Furious” film, “F9: The Fast Saga,” which two weeks ago also set a highwater mark for a domestic box-office debut during the pandemic, by grossing $70 million in its opening weekend.

Comcast Corp.’s

Universal Pictures distributed the movie, which has made $141.3 in North America and $541.8 million globally.

The solid weekend of box-office grosses for “Black Widow” scored below average as far as Marvel debuts go. According to Box Office Mojo, when compared with all 24 Marvel Cinematic Universe titles dating back to 2008, the opening weekend of “Black Widow” ranks 19th, right behind “Doctor Strange,” which Disney released in 2016.

“Black Widow” is the first Marvel film Disney has released to theaters in more than two years. The last Marvel movie Disney sent to theaters, “Avengers: Endgame,” grossed nearly $2.8 billion world-wide, making for a brief time the highest-grossing film of all time.

For the first time since releasing movies in both theaters and on its streaming service, Disney on Sunday released opening-weekend online sales data for “Black Widow,” stating the film also generated more than $60 million globally through its direct-to-consumer Disney+ platform. While the company has to share about half of revenues from movie-theater ticket sales, it keeps all of the revenue from its digital sales.

It is nearly impossible to estimate how much Disney’s choice to make  the film simultaneously available to subscribers of its streaming service Disney+ for an additional $30 may have hampered ticket sales as some consumers likely stayed home to watch the film online.

“This weekend affirms our flexible distribution strategy of making franchise films available in theaters…and, as Covid concerns continue globally, providing choice to consumers who prefer to watch at home on Disney+,” said

Kareem Daniel,

chairman of media and entertainment distribution.

At a cost of $30, “Black Widow” grossing more than $60 million online means roughly two million households bought the film. Disney+ has more than 100 million subscribers.

In “Black Widow”—which takes place in between Avengers movies along the Marvel narrative timeline—Ms. Johansson’s character confronts her troubled past as a Russian supersoldier. The film also stars Florence Pugh, Rachel Weisz and David Harbour. Cate Shortland directed the movie, which cost at least $200 million to produce.

Disney also said that “Black Widow” grossed $78 million overseas, bringing its world-wide box office total to $158 million.

Ahead of the pandemic, Disney had asserted itself as Hollywood’s most prolific movie studio, capturing a third of the domestic box-office. The studio owed its supremacy largely to the success of its Marvel Cinematic Universe, which included many movies featuring popular superheroes such as Iron Man, Thor and Captain America. The franchise was at its best when it brought all its marquee superheroes together for “Avengers” movies.

For more than a decade, Disney was movie theaters’ chief supplier of larger-than-life films capable of enticing consumers into multiplexes despite more at-home viewing options brought on by the streaming revolution pioneered by

Netflix Inc.

NFLX -0.50%

As Wall Street cheered Netflix’s monthly subscriber model, Hollywood’s top studios shifted focus and launched streaming services of their own. And although Hollywood’s largest film producers officially professed their commitment to the theatrical distribution model, as the pandemic wore on and the release of most big-budget movies were put on hold, studios began experimenting.

All with streaming services of their own,

AT&T Inc.’s

T 2.19%

Warner Bros., Universal Pictures and Disney have all tested new approaches to film distribution, each of which threaten the exclusivity movie theaters have enjoyed for decades.

With “F9,” and now “Black Widow,” moviegoing has its clearest bill of health since the pandemic began. Many Hollywood executives are confident the box office will continue to rebound. Still, executives suspect that the added options to watch movies at home means moviegoing may never return to the record levels seen at the end of last decade.

Before the pandemic, world-wide box office grosses hit a record of $42.3 billion in 2019, according to the Motion Picture Association. Global ticket sales fell to $12 billion last year.

Theater owners hope moviegoing’s recovery will continue during the second half of the year as other high profile releases remain, including additional Marvel titles like “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” and “Eternals” in addition to films such as ViacomCBS Inc.’s Paramount Pictures sequel “Top Gun: Maverick” and Warner Bros.’ “Dune” remake.