So, it turns out the combined forces of Jennifer Lawrence and Bruce Willis were not able to take down the mighty nation of Wakanda, as BLACK PANTHER has once again triumphed at the box office. The movie has won its third-straight weekend with the current estimates placing it anywhere between a $60-65 million frame. At this rate, Marvel will be able to take all this money and build the real, futuristic nation of Wakanda. Coming to Disneyland Summer 2025.
Should it stay within these parameters PANTHER will finish with the third-best weekend of all time behind THE FORCE AWAKENS ($90 million) and AVATAR ($68 million). However, as the movie has proved the past two weekends, these estimates may be low, and the movie could best AVATAR’s amount by the end of Sunday. By the end of the weekend, the should either be a few inches away from or will exceed the $500 million mark.
As expected, the movie has trounced the $459 million total of AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON and is now the second-largest Marvel movie at the domestic box office. The movie may not reach the heights of some of the other Marvel movies at the global box office, but the movie will indeed be nearing the $1 billion mark by the end of the weekend.
As for the new releases we are seeing a virtually identical performance from RED SPARROW and DEATH WISH as we did last week’s GAME NIGHT and ANNIHILATION. SPARROW is set to bring in a less-than-expected $16-17 million total, while DEATH is also on the somewhat small side with $11-12 million total. Both movies are faring okay with audiences, earning B and B+ Cinemascores, respectively and getting. That being said, SPARROW is faring much worse with the Rotten Tomatoes audience scores, with the movie's 55% approval trailing WISH's 85%.
Stay tuned for our usual box office round-up tomorrow for the more accurate weekend total, but right now the spotlight is still shining very heavily on PANTHER. What more can be said about the movie's phenomenal performance? It has the one last weekend to bask in the glory before A WRINKLE IN TIME comes out, which should top it for the March 9-11 weekend.