To nobody’s surprise, Marvel’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” grabbed the top spot at the box office for its opening weekend, and it also earned the second best box office for 2022.
U.S. Box Office
Marvel’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” dominated the domestic box office in its debut, earning $180 million over the weekend.
It also set a few records with that total:
- The second biggest opening for 2022, coming in close on the heels of Marvel’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” which debuted May 6 with a $187 million weekend.
- The biggest opening ever for the month of November (beating the $158 million of 2013’s “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”).
- According to Box Office Mojo, it has the 13th biggest opening weekend of all time, and the 8th biggest opening of all-time for an MCU title.
Considering the film had to pivot’s its storyline last minute after the loss of the original film’s star, Chadwick Boseman, it appears fans of the “Black Panther” still showed up in huge numbers to see the latest story about Wakanda and its people.
International Box Office
In addition to the $180 million domestic box office, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” also brought in $150 million from the international box office, bringing the worldwide opening weekend to $330 million.
This marks the 5th highest international opening weekend posted by any Hollywood film of the pandemic era (four of the other five are MCU releases).
In the IMAX format, the global haul was $22.6 million of that $330 million, making the film the 4th best opening ever for the format in the month of November.
Of the international markets, the Top 5 offshore markets for the weekend are the UK ($15M), France ($13.7M), Mexico ($12.8M), Korea ($8.9M) and Brazil ($7.1M), according to Deadline.
Of note, the film scored the highest opening weekend ever in Nigeria, where Marvel held a historic premiere event there last weekend featuring stars from the film.
My Spoiler-Free Review
I had the chance to see the film this weekend, and it’s an amazing film with several layers.
Marvel and director Ryan Coogler have crafted not only a fun and exciting superhero movie, but a moving film about loss and grief, and how we choose how to move forward.
The film also does a great job of honoring Chadwick Boseman, who played the orignal Black Panther, with two montages (one is in the title credits).
Strong performances abound from the cast, with Angela Bassett as Queen Ramonda and Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia leading that list. Tenoch Huerta as Namor also deftly strandles the line between anti-hero and villain of the story.
Definitely see this one in the theaters and splurge on the IMAX or RealD 3D screens. The visuals are gorgeous!
It’s a Marvel film, so stay through the end, because there is one mid-credits scene that really brings the story full circle.
Disney in the Rest of the Top 10
While “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” dominated the weekend box office, one other Disney-related film popped up in the Top 10 Domestic box office.
Hanging in at #7 is Searchlight Picture’s “The Banshees of Inisherin,” starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as two longtime friends in a small Irish village who are suddenly not friends, and the repercussions of that.
It may have only brought in $1.7 million, but it did so in just 960 theaters (compared to the 4,396 theaters for “Wakanda Forever”) in it’s fourth week in theaters.
Did you see “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” this weekend? Let us know what you thought of it!