'Black Panther' Had a Record Breaking Box Office Opening This Weekend

Black Panther has surpassed all expectations

The highly anticipated Marvel movie Black Panther globally brought in $387 million dollars at the box office this past weekend, smashing records and deading the idea that a movie with a black cast could not be a global smash. The movie took in $218 million in the United States alone.

Black Panther is now the highest grossing film by a black director (Ryan Coogler) and featuring a largely black cast. The previous holder of this record was the 2015 hit Straight Outta Compton, which took in $214 million worldwide.

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What makes these results even more interesting is that it surpassed the expectations set by analysts; the movie was expected to take in $165 million in North American ticket sales, which is still nuts. ( To put it in some perspective, the highest grossing weekend for a movie released in February was Deadpool, which took in $159 million over Presidents’ Day weekend in 2016.

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Black Panther has also been enthusiastically praised by critics (it currently has a 97 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes) and fans, who gave the film an Aplus on Cinemascore. So there's a good chance Black Panther could dominate the box office for a while.

Source: NYTimes