‘Black Panther’ slashes its way to fifth-biggest opening ever

“Black Panther” has ascended so fast at the box office, it now has a throne of its own.

Exceeding weeks of projections, the tentpole-movie-turned-cultural-milestone just had the biggest opening ever for a stand-alone film, according to studio estimates reported Monday, and the second-biggest superhero opening ever.

The Disney/Marvel movie grossed $201.7 million over the three-day weekend, according to Box Office Mojo — the biggest domestic debut for any film that’s not a character team-up movie or part of a sequel trilogy.

Directed by Ryan Coogler, “Black Panther,” is the 18th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — all of which have opened at No. 1 — but it is not connected to the studio’s other superhero characters. For Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa/Black Panther, that re-teaming will come in May, when “Avengers: Infinity War”arrives.

“Black Panther” also scored the biggest pre-summer three-day debut, and is just the fifth film to debut north of $200 million (not adjusting for inflation), topped only by “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ($248 million), “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” ($220 million), “Jurassic World” ($208.8 million) and “The Avengers” ($207.4 million).

“Black Panther,” which opened on more than 4,000 screens, also enjoyed the biggest Presidents Day four-day opening ever, with a domestic debut of at least $235 million, reports Box Office Mojo. The film was powered in part by the second-largest Thursday preview night ever ($25.2 million), as well as the second-biggest Sunday in film history ($60.1 million), notching just behind “The Force Awakens” ($60.6 million), reports Variety.

“Black Panther” spotlights a black director and black co-writers, a nearly allblack cast (and zero white Americans in featured roles), as well as top “below the line” black talent and a soundtrack curated by Kendrick Lamar. The cast includes not only frequent Coogler actor Michael B. Jordan, but also such Oscarwinning actors as Lupita Nyong’o and Forest Whitaker and the Oscar-nominated Daniel Kaluuya.

“Black Panther” also represents the biggest domestic debut by a black director.