‘Black Panther’ Reaches $1 Billion at the Global Box Office
After four weeks in the theaters, Disney-Marvel’s Black Panther has scored a major achievement. The Ryan Coogler-directed movie is the 33rd film in box office history to earn $1 billion worldwide.
According to The Wrap, Black Panther debuted in China for the first time on Friday (March 9) with a $22 million opening day gross. In the U.S., the film earned 10 million on Friday.
"Official" box office totals won't come in until Sunday (March 11) by comScore, which counts box office receipts worldwide. Black Panther joins a list of films in the $1 billion movie club. The last flick to achieve this plateau was Star Wars: The Last Jedi in 2017.
Black Panther is the fifth movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to cross the $1 billion threshold behind The Avengers at $1.52 billion, Avengers: Age of Ultron at $1.4 billion, Iron Man 3 at $1.2 billion and Captain America: Civil War at $1.15 billion.
Interestingly, another Disney film, A Wrinkle in Time, opened in theaters this weekend but in the U.S. only. The Ava DuVernay-directed film, starring Oprah Winfrey, Storm Reid and Chris Pine, is another groundbreaking representation of African-Americans in front of and behind the camera.
Meanwhile, Chadwick Boseman will be returning as Black Panther in Marvel's upcoming Avengers sequel, Infinity War, which is due to arrive in theaters on May 4.