To date, only four films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have managed to cross $900 million worldwide, and they’re as follows: The Avengers ($1.52 billion), Age of Ultron ($1.4 billion), Iron Man 3 ($1.2 billion) and Captain America: Civil War ($1.15 billion). It’s a tough club to break into, to be sure, but those four movies might just find themselves in the company of another by the day’s end.
Yes, we’re talking about Black Panther, Marvel’s latest home run, which now sits at $897.7 million, with $501 million coming in domestically and $396.6 million arriving from overseas. There’s no need to tell you how impressive that is, but what’s most exciting about this is that it all but ensures that T’Challa’s first standalone outing will break the $1 billion worldwide mark.
Sure, it’s still got some ways to go, but it’s only been out three weeks and hasn’t opened in China yet. While it’s true that the Middle Kingdom could be a tricky market to crack for superhero pics, Ryan Coogler’s spinoff is riding a large enough wave right now that we imagine it’ll still pull in a healthy sum over there. There’s also the fact that Black Panther is still doing respectable box office business in North America, finishing this past weekend in the #1 spot again with $65.7 million.
In other words, T’Challa is well on his way to the $1 billion worldwide club, where he’ll join the likes of heavy hitters such as Avatar, Titanic, The Last Jedi, Jurassic World, Furious 7 and more. Not bad for what was arguably a B, maybe even C list comic book hero before his introduction in 2016’s Civil War, eh?
How much higher Black Panther will climb remains to be seen, and while it’s unlikely that it’ll end up passing The Avengers‘ whopping $1.5 billion gross, a finish over $1 billion would still be absolutely tremendous and is more than enough to ensure that the character has a very, very bright future ahead of him in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.