Just ahead of the film’s opening, the seemingly generous predictions of $150 million for the President’s Day weekend release of “Black Panther” might be plausible. There was relentless social media buzz that kicked off with the film’s first trailer release last year and reviews in the days leading up to its phenomenal opening.
The idea of Disney’s Marvel Studios’ first film with an all-black cast and black director Ryan Coogler bringing in that much on its first weekend would send a resounding message to the film industry that it can bank on black films.
A black superhero movie pulling those numbers would kick the door open – forcing mainstream Hollywood to admit that it is fiscally responsible to incorporate the diverse narratives that can be found within communities of color. It would also prove that white people will come out to support black movies.
Fingers were collectively crossed that “Black Panther” would win big. Even if the film didn’t quite make the $150M, perhaps the number would be close enough to earn enough to keep the attention of the industry and give other major studios enough nerve to follow suit with respect to pouring money into a black story.
As black people piled into theatres wearing African garb, it was clear that something special was happening.
When the final receipts came in for “Black Panther,” the four-day holiday total was closer to $250M than $150M. “Black Panther’s $40.16M Monday total eclipsed 2016’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” for the biggest Monday in box office history. As of that Tuesday, the film’s four-day total was $241.9M in North America.
Wakanda forever!
In addition to the Monday total record, “Black Panther” now holds the record for the biggest Presidents’ Day opening – a distinction formerly held by “Deadpool,” which opened at $152M over the same weekend in 2016. And it is the second biggest four-day total in history only behind “The Force Awakens.”
Week two was more of the same. “Black Panther” held on as the number one film in the U.S. for the second weekend in a row bringing in an estimated $108 million at the box office.
The film became only the fourth film ever to cross $100 million in its second weekend, joining “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” “Jurassic World,” and “The Avengers.” It is the second highest second weekend for a film behind only “Force Awakens.” “Black Panther” has also crossed the $700 million mark globally in just two weekends of release. After its second weekend domestically, the film, starring Chadwick Boseman and directed by Coogler, is already the fifth highest grossing Marvel Studios film and will likely pass “Captain America: Civil War” and “Iron Man 3” to take the number three spot in the coming days. That total does not include China, the second biggest movie market in the world. “Black Panther” opens there on March 9.
The film has the biggest three-day opening for February. And “Black Panther” has also given 31-year-old filmmaker Coogler the record for the biggest opening for an African-American director. That title was previously held by “The Fate of the Furious” director F. Gary Gray when his film opened to $98M last April.
“Black Panther” has proven itself a game-changer and phenomenon that has engaged audiences both in theatres on social media and beyond.
“Thirty-one straight sellouts of Black Panther at 24:1 Cinema!!!” Beyond Housing CEO Chris Krehmeyer said about the theatre his organization owns and operates via Twitter. “This is how you celebrate and build community!”
The Pagedale movie house looked more like a Pan-African community center than a theatre as guests filled it to capacity during the multiple showings on the Saturday after the film’s opening. An evening screening hosted there by Cori Bush included onsite voter registration.
According to Blavity.com, activists Kayla Reed (a St. Louis native), Jessica Bird and Rukia Lumumba of the Electoral Justice Project created the #WakandaTheVote initiative that registered more than 1,000 voters at “Black Panther” showings across the nation.
With the film we see that black is beautiful. We see that black is powerful. We also see that black is profitable.
“Black Panther” is currently open in theatres nationwide. The film is Rated PG-13 with a Running time of 135 minutes.
Information from CNN.com contributed to this report.
