Black Panther is undoubtedly Wakanda’s greatest export – with Vibranium being a close second, of course.
Since its North American debut on February 16th, the standalone Marvel movie has carved out its own place in box office history – you can thank Black Panther‘s meteoric four-day weekend for that. To date, Ryan Coogler’s Afrocentric adventure has racked up an enormous $727 million worldwide, and we know North American ticket sales account for $411.7 million of that impressive total.
That’s something worth celebrating, too, as Black Panther has now become the third highest-grossing MCU movie at the domestic box office (h/t CBM), easily outstripping Captain America: Civil War ($408 million) and Iron Man 3 ($409 million) in the process. It still has a way to go if it’s to match Marvel’s crown jewels – namely Age of Ultron ($458M) and The Avengers ($623 million) – but the respective domestic cumes of The Dark Knight Rises ($448M) and The Dark Knight ($534M) are well within reach. For the record, these figures haven’t been adjusted for inflation.
Exactly how high Black Panther can climb is the real question. Estimations have been all over the shop, with some predicting a final cume in excess of $1 billion – thereby placing T’Challa’s solo adventure in the company of box office greats like Iron Man 3 ($1.2 billion) and Captain America: Civil War ($1.15 billion). Low-end projections indicate that Black Panther will come in around the $900 million mark, though we’re quietly confident in T’Challa’s ability to break $1 billion before time runs out.
We will, of course, be keeping track of Black Panther‘s performance over the coming weeks, by which point we should have that full-length Infinity War trailer for you to pore over, too. Exciting times, indeed.