In a defining moment for Hollywood, Disney and Marvel Studios’ Black Panther exploded at the Presidents’ Day box office, bounding to a record-shattering estimate of $201.8 million for the three-day weekend and a projected $235 million-plus for the four-day holiday frame.Those grosses are substantially ahead of Sunday’s estimates of $192 million and $218 million, respectively. Overall revenue for the holiday weekend looks to be up a staggering 88 percent over last year, pushing revenue year-to-date by nearly 7 percent.
The Ryan Coogler-directed movie — unprecedented in being a big-budget studio tentpole featuring a virtually all-black cast — secured the fifth-biggest domestic opening of all time after blasting past all expectations. And it nabbed one of the top four-day grosses of all time after stomping past Jurassic World ($234.1 million) to land behind Star Wars: The Last Jedi ($241.6 million) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($288.1 million). Black Panther could climb even higher once weekend numbers are tallied Tuesday morning; rival studios put the four-day gross in the $240 million range.
On Sunday alone, the movie grossed an estimated $60.1 million, the second-biggest Sunday ever behind Force Awakens ($60.6 million) — and not by much.
Other records broken include the biggest opening for an African-American director, the top-scoring superhero film on Rotten Tomatoes (97 percent) and biggest February bow, supplanting previous champ Deadpool, which took in $152.2 million over the four-day Presidents Day weekend in 2016.
Playing in 4,020 theaters, Black Panther was fueled by a diverse audience. According to comScore, 37 percent of ticket buyers were African-American. Caucasians made up the next largest group (35 percent), followed by Hispanics (18 percent). That sort of demo breakdown is unheard of for a marquee superhero tentpole. On average, African-Americans make up about 15 percent of the audience for such fare. Females also turned out in force to see Black Panther, heralded for its portrayal of strong women, making up 45 percent of all ticket buyers (that share is usually 35 percent-40 percent on a superhero movie’s opening weekend).
Black Panther, costing $200 million to make before marketing, was a bold move on the part of Disney and Marvel’s Kevin Feige. Now, it has become yet another victory for both.
In the film, Chadwick Boseman stars as T’Challa/Black Panther alongside Lupita Nyong’o, Michael B. Jordan, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker and Andy Serkis. The story, described as a tale of black power and black pride in addition to its superhero themes, follows T’Challa as he is sworn in as king of Wakanda, a cloaked, technologically advanced nation in Africa that’s home to the exotic metal vibranium, the source of the Black Panther’s powers.
Audiences bestowed Black Panther with an A+ CinemaScore; the only other Marvel title to earn an A+ was Avengers.
Black Panther hits theaters almost a year after Jordan Peele’s maverick horror film, Get Out, transformed into a box-office sensation, although that was a genre pic. And in summer 2017, filmmaker Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman became the highest-grossing live-action film from a female director.
Overseas — where American films with a black cast can face challenges — Black Panther opened in virtually every major market save for Russia (Feb. 22), Japan (March 1) and China (March 9). The movie earned a mighty $169 million for an estimated global bow of $404 million through Monday, including a hefty $35 million from Imax locations around the world, the top showing ever for Marvel title.
The only movies daring to open nationwide opposite Black Panther were Lionsgate and Aardman Animation’s family film Early Man and PureFlix’s faith-based pic Samson, which looks to take in only $2 million.
Early Man placed No. 7 with an estimated four-day gross of $4.2 million from 2,492 theaters. Samson came in No. 11 with an estimated $2.4 million from 1,249 cinemas.
Among holdovers vying for attention over Presidents Day weekend, Sony and Aardman’s animated family film Peter Rabbit placed No. 2 with $23.1 million for a domestic total of $54.1 million, followed by Universal’s Fifty Shades Freed with $19.4 million in its second outing for a seductive global total of $268.4 million.
#WakandaForever
The article was originally published on The Hollywood Reporter.