It looks like the numbers are finally in and it’s looking much better than initially expected, as Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is set to take the weekend with an impressive $67.3M. Not only is it reviving a rather dead fall box office, but also pulled in the second-highest comic book movies’ second weekend of the year. It’s higher than Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness‘ $61M, which had a much higher opening but faced a harsher drop. It’s only behind Spider-Man: No Way Home which had quite the harsh decline as well but was carried by its legs, which the A CinemaScore could do the same for the Black Panther sequel.
Overseas, it has now also pulled in an additional 69.8M, which puts the film at $546.3M and on route to potentially scratch the $900M mark over its run. The international drop of 53.5% is pretty good and there’s hope for the film to carry on with some strong legs, especially into Black Friday and the Thanksgiving holiday with no real direct competition outside of Disney’s Strange World.
Currently, the film stands at $288M and should pass the $400M mark by the end of its run, but where it lands depends strongly on its legs moving forward. It didn’t quite reach the $70M but there are reports that this is likely due to its length. Ironically, while fans complained that the Doctor Strange sequel and Thor: Love and Thunder are too short, the runtime is hitting Wakanda Forever a bit when it comes to its box office performance.
So, all eyes will be on the weekly performance for this film, as Thanksgiving week can make all the difference and likely also the cause of why not everyone rushed to theaters over the weekend. Veteran’s Day holiday also played a key factor in its drop, which helped elevate its box office and it’s only 2% behind Doctor Strange at the same time. Next Sunday could be the decider of where it truly might end up.
Source: Twitter, The Numbers, Twitter, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline
