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Black Panther Box Office Now Top 10 All-Time Domestically
After three weekends, Black Panther is now one of the highest-grossing films ever. Thanks to enthusiastic word-of-mouth from critics and audiences, director Ryan Coogler’s latest is a cultural phenomenon that’s impressive even by Marvel’s lofty standards. Black Panther came storming out of the gates with a whopping $242 million during the 4-day Presidents Day weekend and made its way up the charts from there. Seemingly every day it’s crossing a new milestone, setting a new second-weekend gross record for the MCU.
To say Black Panther has strong legs would be an understatement. Soaring past the $400 million mark in just 10 days, it seemed poised to be one of the biggest movies of all-time (not just superhero or Marvel). Projections heading into the weekend indicated it would pass the domestic total of Avengers: Age of Ultron during its third frame, and Panther has now done more than that. It topped another Disney blockbuster to work its way into the top 10 all-time.
Per Box Office Mojo, Black Panther earned $65.7 million this weekend to raise its Stateside haul to $501.1 million. With this, Panther has now surpassed Finding Dory ($486.2 million) for tenth place on the all-time domestic charts. It’s only a matter of time before it beats Beauty and the Beast ($504 million), and Rogue One ($532.1 million) and The Dark Knight ($534.8 million) are clearly in its sights. With how it’s holding, Black Panther should become just the seventh film in history to break $600 million at the U.S. box office.
With Panther continuing its dominance, this week’s new releases fought an uphill battle for ticket sales. Jennifer Lawrence’s spy thriller Red Sparrow earned $17 million in its first three days, while the Bruce Willis vehicle Death Wish grossed $13 million. Neither was much of a critical darling, which definitely hurt their commercial prospects. Since buzz is muted for both, these two films likely won’t have much staying power. For Lawrence, this is a continuation of her recent commercial slump, as she hasn’t been much of a draw in recent years. Elsewhere in the top five, comedy Game Night came in fourth with $10.7 million and family film Peter Rabbit earned $10 million.
The big story at the box office once again is Black Panther, and the question now is just how high it will go. Its reign at the top of the weekend charts may come to an end next week when A Wrinkle In Time debuts, though that is open for debate at this point in time. Following its premiere, reactions to the fantasy film were mixed, so it will be interesting to see how the tracking shapes up later in the week. There is a very realistic chance Black Panther passes The Avengers before its run closes, becoming the MCU’s biggest earner. It’s also knocking on the door of $1 billion worldwide with a global total of $897.7 million.
KEY RELEASE DATES
Black Panther release date: Feb 16, 2018
Avengers: Infinity War / The Avengers 3 release date: May 4, 2018
Ant-Man & The Wasp release date: Jul 6, 2018
Captain Marvel release date: Mar 8, 2019
The Avengers 4 / Untitled Avengers Movie release date: May 3, 2019
Untitled Spider-Man: Homecoming Sequel release date: Jul 5, 2019
