The box office came back to life with the highly anticipated movie “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
The Marvel sequel grossed $180 million in ticket sales Sunday from more than 4,396 theaters in the U.S. and Canada, The Walt Disney Co. estimated. Overseas, it brought in another $150 million from 50 territories, bringing its worldwide total to $330 million.
“Wakanda Forever” has been eagerly awaited by audiences and exhibitors alike, who have had a slow run at the box office since the end of the summer movie season and fewer blockbusters in the works. The film got off to a good start, slightly stronger than the first film, with an $84 million opening day, including $28 million from Thursday previews.
The first film opened with $202 million in February 2018 and grossed over $1.4 billion worldwide, making it one of the highest grossers of all time and a cultural phenomenon. A sequel was inevitable and development began soon after, but that all changed after the unexpected death of Chadwick Boseman in August 2020. “Wakanda Forever” was instead about the death of Boseman’s king T’Challa/Black Panther and the painful reign he had. Left. behind. Returning actors include Angela Bassett, Lupita Nyong’o, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke and Danai Gurira, who face a new foe in Tenoch Huerta’s Namor. The film was also expected to deal with several complications, including Wright’s injury and some setbacks related to COVID-19. In total, it cost $250 million, not including marketing and promotional activities.
AP film writer Jake Coyle wrote in his review that “‘Wakanda Forever’ is overlong, a little unwieldy, and somehow reaches a mysterious climax on a barge in the middle of the Atlantic.” But Coogler’s fluid mastery of blending intimacy with spectacle remains compelling.”
It currently holds an 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, and as is often the case with comic book movies, the audience scores are even higher.
Superhero movies have done well during the pandemic, but none have yet surpassed “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which opened to $260.1 million in December 2021. Other big releases include “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” ($187.4 million in May), “Thor: Love and Thunder” ($144.2 million in July) and “The Batman” ($134 million in March).
Reserves populated the rest of the top five, as no film dared to show domestically against a Marvel behemoth. In second place was DC superhero “Black Adam” with $8.6 million, bringing its domestic total to $151.1 million. “Ticket to Paradise” finished third in its fourth weekend with $6.1 million. Julia Roberts and George Clooney’s romantic comedy grossed nearly $150 million worldwide.
The weekend wasn’t complete without several high-profile releases. Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical drama “The Fabelmans” opened in four theaters in New York and Los Angeles to $160,000. Universal and Amblin will release the film in more theaters in the coming weeks to build excitement around the likely Oscar contender. Michelle Williams and Paul Dano play the parents of Spielberg’s stuntman Sammy Fabelman, who falls in love with movies and filming as his parents’ marriage falls apart.
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