With little competition, it seems that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever had no problem keeping its hold on the No. 1 spot with another $17.6M. That makes it the fourth weekend in a row; the first to do so since the release of Sony and Marvel Studios’ record-breaking Spider-Man: No Way Home. It did have some competition this weekend as David Harbour‘s Violent Night, a story about John Wick if he was Santa Clause, managed to pull in $13.3M over its premiere weekend, ahead of early projections.
Wakanda Forever now stands at $394M domestic and will definitely pass $400M and has a good chance at pulling in $450M by the end of its run. If the film will manage to hold that top spot in the next weekend depends on the return of Top Gun: Maverick which has been the only film so far to really outperform any expectation during 2022’s release. For those wondering if this means people are tired of superhero films: it had a pull with a long-dormant audience with its increase of older movie goers that may have generally been cautious ever since the pandemic hit and simply held a nostalgia for Tom Cruise and Top Gun. Good word-of-mouth did the rest.
Worldwide, Black Panther has already passed the $700M mark and proudly stands at $733M. It’s foreign tally of $339M is quite interesting as normally Marvel productions are bigger internationally than domestically though the split was similar with the original Black Panther release. The film is unlikely to pass the original’s run and a billion does seem far-fetched, more dependent on how long Marvel Studios can keep it in theaters at this point. Still, in the later $800M area seems possible but there’s some uncertainty if it can pull through with $900M; though Doctor Strange did surprise earlier this year as well.
Strange World is continuing to bomb as it is struggling quite a bit with only $4.9M taking in over the weekend and standing at a depressing $25.5M. With $42.3M worldwide, the film is likely to lose Disney more than $100M at this rate. Also to make a point regarding Top Gun earlier, Jonathan Majors and Adam Powell‘s Devotion didn’t quite become the same hit like Top Gun did earlier this year while trying to bandwagon off of its success with a similar style only set during the Korean War. It still did decently with a 12-day domestic of $13.8M, pulling in $2.8M this weekend.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
