Daily Times

The film took $292 million at the North American box office, $22 million more than The Avengers grossed in its first week in 2012. The film is still yet to open in several international markets, opening in China on 9 March, though the numbers are still impressive there: it’s made $228 million internationally so far, led by the UK with $31.9 million, making for a $520 million worldwide total.

That does open Black Panther up to the potential of becoming the highest-grossing comic book film of all time, a title The Avengerscurrently holds, though that’ll be dependent on how much its box office declines in future weeks. Disney noted, via Variety, that comparative Marvel titles have declined on average of 53% domestically, with the exception of The Avengers, which only dropped 45%.

That would suggest Black Panther’s second weekend will fall somewhere between $83 million and $95 million range, yet many estimates have fallen short when predicting the Ryan Coogler film’s record-breaking success.

The first solo outing for Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa, the titular hero, Marvel’s latest traces the aftermath of Captain America: Civil War’s events; T’Challa now returns home to Wakanda, only to find a pair of enemies conspiring to bring down his kingdom.

Alongside Boseman, the film boasts the likes of Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Forest Whitaker, Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, Danai Gurira, and Daniel Kaluuya.

Published in Daily Times, February 26^th 2018.