‘Black Panther’ sinks ‘Titanic’ at box office

Black Panther broke more records at the weekend in North America, exceeding revenues from the 1997 blockbuster Titanic, while horror thriller A Quiet Place, with barely three minutes of dialogue, made a resounding $50.2million (R604-million) debut.

A Quiet Place is built around a simple but chilling premise: flesh-eating creatures have invaded Earth, but they are blind and can track their prey only by sound.

So actor-director John Krasinski, his wife (in the film and in real life), Emily Blunt, and their children must adapt – through sign language and ingenious adaptations – or die.

The film has drawn rave reviews, with a 97% Rotten Tomatoes rating.

Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One – a futuristic tribute to 1980s films – came in second at $24.6-million (R296million) from Friday to Sunday, according to box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

The Warner Bros film tells the story of a teenage gamer (Wade Watts) who finds himself inside an addictive virtual reality world. It has earned $96.5-million (R1.16-billion) in two weeks. In third was another new release, Universal’s Blockers, at $20.6-million (R248-million).

A raunchy comedy starring John Cena and Leslie Mann, the movie drew considerable buzz at the South by Southwest film festival.

Still flourishing in its eighth week out, Black Panther netted $8.7-million (R104-million) for fourth spot.

Already the highest-grossing superhero film in US history, its cumulative total in the US and Canada now exceeds $665.6-million (R8-billion).

That number takes the film past Titanic, which had collected $659-million (R7.9-billion) – in North America.

Black Panther is now third in movie ticket sales of all time on the continent.

Avatar (2009) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) are still ahead, with $760-million (R9.1-billion) and $936.7-million (R11.2-billion) in ticket sales respectively.