‘Black Panther’ records the 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 overperformed massively by grossing US$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 reteaming 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 US$200 million (not adjusting for inflation), topped only by ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ (US$248 million), ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ (US$220 million), ‘Jurassic World’ (US$208.8 million) and ‘The Avengers’ (US$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 US$235 million, reports Box Office Mojo. The film was powered in part by the secondlargest Thursday preview night ever (US$25.2 million), as well as the second-biggest Sunday in film history (US$60.1 million), notching just behind ‘The Force Awakens’ (US$60.6 million), reports Variety.
Sparked largely by the ‘Black Panther Challenge’, hundreds of free screenings and campaign drives helped deliver many disadvantaged young viewers and children of colour to see the film.
‘Black Panther’ spotlights a black director and black cowriters, a nearly all-black 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 Oscar-winning actors as Lupita Nyong’o and Forest Whitaker and the Oscarnominated Daniel Kaluuya.
‘Black Panther’ also represents the biggest domestic debut by a black director.
At the North American box office, the highest-grossing movie ever by a black director is F. Gary Gray’s ‘The Fate of the Furious’, at US$226 million, when not adjusting for inflation, and Sidney Poitier’s 1980 comedy ‘Stir Crazy’, at US$345.7 million, when adjusting for inflation.
The Black Panther, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, made his comic-book debut in 1966, in Fantastic Four No. 52, and made his live-action feature debut a half-century later, in ‘Captain America: Civil War’.
‘Black Panther’ was buoyed by high critical and audience marks and cross-demographic appeal. Nearly half of the film’s North American audience was female and more than 60 per cent was older than 25, according to audience tracking, and the movie received an “A-plus” audience CinemaScore.
‘Black Panther’ scored a 97 per cent “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes — the highest score for an MCU movie — and an average score of 88 on the review-aggregate site Metacritic. And Coogler (‘Creed’, ‘Fruitvale Station’) has one of the best three-film starts to a modern live-action feature career, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
‘Black Panther’ had a production budget of about US$200 million, according to trade reports. Marvel has shown a willingness to spend more, and on more diverse fare, since Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige wrested control away from Marvel chief executive Ike Perlmutter in 2015.
Globally, ‘Black Panther’ has grossed US$404 million, reflecting a strong overseas reception. The film, like the comic, is set in the fictional African nation of Wakanda.
The movie has yet to open in such large overseas markets as China, Russia and Japan, so there are high-yield foreign audiences still to be mined. — WP-Bloomberg