Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther” raked in another US$ 27 million this past weekend, topping the North American weekend box office for the fifth-straight weekend in a row, making it the first movie since James Cameron’s Avatar in 2008 to top the weekend box office charts for five straight weekends. That is an unprecedented record, especially for a solo superhero movie in its first outing.
The 18th entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is now the 7th highest grossing movie of all time in North America, behind “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, “Avatar”, “Titanic”, “Jurassic World”, “The Avengers” and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”. “Black Panther” is projected to outgross at least, “The Avengers” by the end of its run, which would make it the highest grossing Marvel Cinematic Universe movie and highest grossing comic book movie of all time, in North America.
“Black Panther” is doing big numbers outside of North America too, but perhaps not as big as many would’ve hoped, particularly in China. Over in China, the film took a huge dive on its second Friday. A couple of weeks ago, “Black Panther” opened in China with US$ 22 million on Friday. But presumedly because of the poor (and racist) word of mouth, the film dropped 88% on its second Friday, raking in only US$ 2.7 million. However, the film still made a solid US$ 96 million in 10 days, in China.
“Black Panther” is now the 14th highest grossing movie of all time, worldwide — the fourth highest grossing comic book movie behind “The Avengers”, “Avengers: Age of Ultron” and “Iron Man 3”. Based on our estimates, the film should manage to outgross the likes of “Iron Man 3”, “The Fate of the Furious”, “Beauty and the Beast” and “Frozen” to be the 10th highest grossing movie of all time, worldwide. However, as of now, it seems like “The Last Jedi’s” US$ 1.3 billion may be slightly out of reach.
