'Black Panther' is already starting to eclipse 'The Avengers' at the box office

Keep hailing the king, because Black Panther continues to blow Marvel's box office expectations to smithereens with the kinetic force of a vibranium suit.

The Ryan Coogler-directed blockbuster was already breaking all sorts of box office records during its opening Presidents Day weekend release. Throughout the rest of the week, though, it only continued the trend, raking in the best Monday and Thursday for any Marvel Cinematic Universe title.

To put that in plain terms: This means Black Panther had the best first week at the box office of any MCU movie ever -- bypassing The Avengers' $270M with an astounding $292M. And the king didn't even need the whole pantheon of Marvel heroes like The Avengers did. Wakanda earned these numbers all on its own, with a cast that largely featured previously unknown MCU characters.

That's not to mention the fact that it's breaking all these records in the month of February. Generally speaking, February is considered something of a dead zone for movies, and we've seen Marvel dump releases they don't really expect to be box office blowouts during February.

Previously, Deadpool was the record holder for best February opening weekend for any film, MCU or otherwise, making $132,434,639. But Black Panther smashed that record too, grossing $202,003,951, according to Box Office Mojo.

So in summary, Black Panther is racking in summer blockbuster box office numbers, but it's doing so during the winter, and flying in the face of conventional MCU box office wisdom. Now, just imagine what a Black Panther 2 release during primetime summer season will do.

At this rate, we can truly expect to stay in Wakanda forever -- and that's reason enough to celebrate by seeing the movie just one more time.