Black Panther Box Office News
Critics Love Black Panther
Marvel’s Black Panther opened in theaters on Friday (well, Thursday evening), and it immediately became one of the most successful theatrical releases of the 2000s. Detailing the long list of superlatives it’s already achieved would take all day, so let’s stick with the important facts. Black Panther claimed a Rotten Tomatoes score of 97 percent, with 282 out of 291 critics giving it a positive grade thus far. Among Top Critics, its score is 100 percent (!), as all 48 credentialed critics loved the film.
Even more impressive is its Cinemascore. This grade comes from opening night attendance. A company named Cinamascore hands out surveys, asking for feedback from early attendants. A good Cinemascore is anything B+ or above. Black Panther earned an A+. How rare is that? Only three movies during the first 10 months of 2017 received that grade. Suffice to say that the fanboys and fangirls who showed up on the first day absolutely loved the film, which is understandable. I’ll be posting my own glowing review in a couple of days.
Black Panther Wrecks the Competition
Finally and most importantly, the box office estimates are in for the weekend. Black Panther opened to a staggering $192 million over the three-day weekend period from Friday to Sunday. Since this is also a holiday weekend, Disney also announced a four-day total for the film that includes Monday estimates. That number is $218 million, a total larger than Black Panther’s production budget of $200 million. Yes, it’s already profitable after its first four days in theaters. By earning $192 million, Black Panther claimed one of the five biggest opening weekends of all-time.
Disney also released some splits that show the film’s success. Black Panther’s opening weekend audience was only 55 percent male, a remarkably low percentage for a comic book movie. With 45 percent of the audience female, it’s safe to say that Black Panther appealed to virtually everyone. That includes older movie goers. Generally, the bread and butter of opening weekend box office is the under-25 crowd, but 61 percent of people who attended the film this weekend were 25 or older.
This number hints at an extended box office run for the film. A $500 million domestic performance is entirely possible for Black Panther. Only two other comic book movies, The Dark Knight and The Avengers, have earned that much in the history of box office. A total of at least $450 million appears likely right now. That’s still rarefied air, as Avengers: Age of Ultron joins the other two comic book movies as the only ones to reach that total. Yes, Black Panther has a real chance to become one of the three or four most successful comic book movies ever.
2014 Feels Like Forever Ago for Box Office Analysts
From a Disney perspective, this blockbuster is merely their latest one. The company’s done something staggering in recent years. They have reinvented the historical box office top ten in their image. Entering 2015, the top 10 domestic movies of all-time started with revenue of $424.7 million for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Above it were ET ($435.1 million) at #9, Shrek 2 ($436.5 million) at #8, The Dark Knight Rises ($448.1 million) at #7, and Star Wars ($460.9 million) at #6.
While Disney technically owns Star Wars now, they weren’t responsible for any of its releases up until December of 2015. I mention this because Star Wars also claims fifth place for The Phantom Menace ($474.5 million). Disney made no money on those releases, although they now receive merchandising revenue for characters from those films. Yes, I’m going somewhere with this.
The top four all-time blockbusters heading into 2015 were The Dark Knight ($534.9 million), The Avengers ($623.4 million), Titanic ($659.4 million), and Avatar is the grand champion at $760.5 million. Again, Disney will own Avatar by the end of the year, barring something unforeseen, but they earned no money from its box office run. So, out of the top ten hits in North American box office history, Disney released exactly one title: The Avengers.
What Have YOU Done over the Last Couple of Years?
Over the past 27 months, much has changed. The current box office top ten reflects this landmark change, which I’m calling the Age of Disney. The tenth most successful domestic release is now Finding Dory, the Pixar release that earned $486.3 million. Ninth place is also a Disney film, the Beauty and the Beast live action remake from last year, which totaled $504 million. Eighth place is the first of several Star Wars films, Rogue One, which tallied $532.2 million. Another Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi, is ahead of it in sixth place with $618 million (The Dark Knight slots between them in seventh).
In the top five, three titles aren’t Disney. Avatar and Titanic are now the second and third largest movies ever, while Jurassic World earned fourth place during its run. It is the only new entrant in the top ten that isn’t a Disney title! Meanwhile, fifth and first place are both from the Mouse House. The Avengers maintains its status in the top five…but only barely. It sits in fifth, $5.8 million ahead of The Last Jedi.
Meanwhile, the grand champion of box office, as you likely know, is Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens. It gained an unprecedented $936 million domestically, a full $176 million more than second place. It should remain the #1 movie for a long time to come.
The point of this discussion isn’t about any one specific film, though. It’s about the total dominance of Disney over the past few years. After having only one movie in the all-time box office top ten as late as November of 2015, they now claim SIX!!! Disney has rewritten all major box office records with their titles.
It’s ALL Disney Now!
In fact, I haven’t even gotten to the most amazing aspect of what Disney has achieved in recent years. Here is the list of the top nine domestic box office openings of all-time:
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens – $248 million
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi – $220 million
- Jurassic World – $208.8 million
- The Avengers – $207.4 million
- Black Panther – $192 million
- Avengers: Age of Ultron – $191.3 million
- Captain America: Civil War – $179.1 million
- Beauty and the Beast (2017) – $174.8 million
- Iron Man 3 – $174.1 million
Yes, you’re seeing what you think you’re seeing. Disney titles now hold down eight of the top nine spots on the all-time opening weekend box office chart. Truly, we are in the Age of Disney. Black Panther is merely the latest example of how great the company has become at satisfying the needs of movie lovers. Also, I’m not going out on a limb to say that you can expect a strong Black Panther park presence in coming weeks, months, and years. He’s now bigger than the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Thanks for visiting MickeyBlog.com! For a free quote on your next Disney vacation, fill out the form below!