Can Marvel’s Black Panther do $1 billion? Black Panther’s official three day opening weekend came in at $201.7 million. The film has the fifth-highest grossing opening weekend of all time and now holds the record for most tickets presold for a superhero movie. It also has the eighth-highest grossing opening day of all time. Although the movie was not expected to surpass $90 million in its opening weekend, it has destroyed those projections. Black Panther has grossed over $404 million globally and it’s safe to say that $1 billion is possible. Out of the 18 Marvel movies only four have crossed the billion threshold. Each of those movies hit at least $400 million domestically and were boosted by overseas performances. Black Panther has endured success based on audience reactions causing an increase in family and friends sharing their movie-going experience and more people flocking to join the hype.
Black people are not just supporting this movie because it’s a Black film, but because it is a great film as exhibited from his current rotten tomatoes score of 97%, one of the highest rated superhero films of all time. Black Panther is now also the highest rated Marvel movie of all time based on this rotten tomatoes score. This film has proven that a Black director can be big at the box office and a majority Black cast can also be proven winners at the box office when given an opportunity. Looking at Feedback from comScore, only 37% of the movie goers were African-American which means this film resonated with other races as well. According to comScore the Black Panther viewing audience was 37% Black 35% White and 18% Hispanic.
Black Panther also now has the highest grossing February opening weekend ever beating out 2016‘s Deadpool. A huge contributing factor for this may be the way in which the film encompassed racial/social injustice issues and foreign-policy aid, subjects that other Marvel films do not cover. I’ve officially purchased my first class tickets to Wakanda. There have been several grassroots campaigns for the film and a #BlackPantherChallenge which has raised money to send children of color and impoverished areas to see the movie for free. I participated in this process and helped a teacher provide tickets for her entire class to see the film.
A major success of this movie can be largely attributed to Black buying power. I’ve been a Marvel fan or comic fan in general for as long as I can remember and I’ve been excited about this film since the Black Panther was introduced in Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War. So I know firsthand that there are millions of Black people who have never watched a superhero movie and are not interested in comic book movies who are going to see their first Marvel film. Black buying power continues to increase and will be rising to $1.5 trillion in the next couple of years. We’ve always shown to be a key piece in the world’s economy as consumers and the success of this film proves that we can support our own. And when we support our own, we can do great things in our community. The Black population watches more television than any other race but we are not represented in diverse castings most of the time. This film was a major step in the right direction and was extremely important to see for many Black youth. Blacks continue to lead and influence mainstream American culture and culture around the world so it should be no shock to see the success of this film. On top of the success of Black Panther, Kendrick Lamar‘s Black Panther album opened at number one on the Billboard charts upon its release.
I said this in my last Black Panther post but again Disney NEEDS to create a Wakanda theme park.
Can Black Panther gross $1 billion? It has already grossed $404 million showing a very strong overseas reception and it has yet to release in the huge markets of China, Japan and Russia.
Wakanda Forever!]]>
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