'Black Panther' just had the biggest box office debut ever for a Marvel solo movie
Excited for Black Panther? So are we. Which is why we're rolling out obsessive coverage with Black Panther Week.
We knew Black Panther would be a hit. And now, the box office figures are here to prove it.
The latest chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe opened with $242 million (technically, $241.96 million) earned over the weekend, including Monday's Presidents' Day holiday. That's enough to give King T'Challa's adventures in Wakanda a second-place finish among all other MCU movie openings.
Black Panther's Friday-Saturday-Sunday opening accounts for $201.8 million. That's just enough to secure an all time top-five finish among Friday-Saturday-Sunday opening weekends, behind 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).
The final four-day tally of $241.96 million inches Black Panther into the second-place position for best four-day opening of all time, behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($288.1 million). It comes in juuuuuust ahead of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which earned $241.57 million in its first four days.
At least part of the sensational Black Panther box office success is due to the fact that the movie dropped in February. The early months of the year are typically quiet ones for Hollywood, though risk-averse studios have more recently taken advantage of the period's empty release calendar to showcase unproven blockbusters.
In 2016, that was Deadpool. The R-rated superhero movie was in many ways a first for the genre, proving that an adults-only audience could carry a comic book adaptation to box office success. Until Black Panther came along, Deadpool's $132.4 million opening weekend made it the all time winner for February releases.
Black Panther was considered "risky" -- from a studio exec's perspective, to be clear -- for a different, and arguably more controversial, reason. Its predominantly black cast of stars and politicized themes fall outside the typical recipe of a successful Hollywood blockbuster, which tends to center around white male leads.
What's more, the Black Panther character is among Marvel's lesser-known heroes on the world stage. Any fan of Marvel comics would call foul on that, but stand, say, Spider-Man, or Wolverine, or Captain America up against Black Panther and there's really no contest. He's just not as well known as those others.
This movie changes that. Buzz around Black Panther had been building for months. As the Feb. 16 release drew closer, all the usual background buzz about box office predictions grew on a weekly basis. At one point, Black Panther was on the road to a $150 million opening. Barely a day later, that number had climbed to $165 million.
To anyone paying attention, it was clear from not just the buzz but also the cultural movement building around the movie that it was going to be something special. Then, it screened for critics and reviews came out. That made things internet-official: Black Panther was a hit.
The numbers don't lie. A whopping $201.8 million in three days. $242 million in four. Another $184.6 million from releases in countries outside the U.S., with many first-place weekend finishes among them. The international box office doesn't even include Russia, Japan, and -- crucially -- China, all major foreign where a release is still to come.
After just four days, the total Black Panther box office is at $426.6 million. The question at this point isn't whether or not it will hit $1 billion; it's how quickly that milestone occurs. In case it wasn't yet clear, Black Panther is fully owning its moment.
UPDATED Feb. 19, 2018, 10:31 a.m. ET with revised estimates from Disney following the close of the Sunday box office.
UPDATED Feb. 20, 2018, 11:52 a.m. ET with finalized three-day and four-day domestic and international box office figures.
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
