Black Panther Is Now On Pace To Finish Ahead Of The Avengers

The sky’s the limit when it comes to Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther, and we can’t wait to see how high it ends up soaring.

Leading up to February 16th, the pic started to establish itself as the must-see movie of year – second only to Avengers: Infinity War, of course. Box office projections were quickly adjusted, and though Black Panther became shackled with a great deal of expectation, the Afrocentric epic delivered the goods. And then some.

After scoring the best Tuesday ever for a Marvel Cinematic Universe film, the spinoff then clinched the best Wednesday as well, surpassing The Avengers‘ original record. Whedon’s blockbuster pulled in $13.6 million a few years back but Coogler’s film managed to collect $14.5 million.

Now, T’Challa has done it again, clawing his way to a massive Thursday night to knock Earth’s Mightiest Heroes from their perch. While the aforementioned 2012 blockbuster did $12.4 million on its first Thursday, Black Panther easily climbed higher than that, earning $14.3 million.

That brings its domestic total to $292 million, which is quite a bit higher than what The Avengers had at this point in its theatrical run ($270 million). It also means the MCU’s latest effort now has a worldwide haul of $505.8 million under its belt. Crazy, right?

That’s a staggering amount of money for any movie, let alone one based on a character who was only introduced pretty briefly back in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War and before then, was a B, maybe even C-list hero in the comic books. But I guess it just goes to show what a wonderful job Ryan Coogler and co. did that the spinoff is resonating so well with people.

And even if it doesn’t end up passing The Avengers when all is said and done (though it probably will domestically, at least) no one can deny what a tremendous success Black Panther has been. Wakanda forever, indeed.