Weekend Estimates: Black Panther Tops $500 Million in Third Weekend

March 4, 2018

Black Panther

Black Panther will add another $65.7 million this weekend, according to Disney’s Sunday morning estimate. That’ll be the 3rd-best 3rd weekend in history, behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Avatar. It also will make Panther the 3rd-fastest movie to $500 million at the domestic box office, behind Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. It continues to track extremely closely to Jurassic World, which finished its domestic run with $652 million.

Panther has earned just shy of $400 million internationally (Disney puts the number at $396.6 million by the end of today). That gives it $897.7 million globally after three weeks, with China still to come. It’s the fifth Marvel Universe film to hit that number, and it should handily eclipse Iron Man 3’s $1.2 billion, to become the highest-grossing film in the franchise for a standalone character. The Avengers $1.5 billion global haul looks like it will be harder to crack, unless something remarkable happens in China.

Two new films ran into the Black Panther juggernaut this weekend, and both are coming out of it with OK numbers. Red Sparrow is predicted to earn $17 million from 3,056 theaters. That’s quite a bit better than Jennifer Lawrence’s last opening, the controversial mother!, which debuted with $7.5 million last year. However, it’s right in line with the openings of Passengers ($14.9 million) and Joy ($17 million).

Death Wish will open with $13 million from 2,847 theaters, in spite of very poor reviews. While not exactly a triumphant rebirth for MGM, its performance is by no means a disgrace.

The news on limited releases is, of course, dominated by this evening’s Academy Awards. The race for Best Picture appears to be between The Shape of Water and Three Billboards, and if you’re looking for some tea leaves to read at the last minute, Shape of Water is doing slightly better this weekend—up 19% to $1.4 million for the weekend, and $57.4 million to date. Three Billboards will be down 2% this weekend to $1.23 million, and has $52 million in the bank.

- Weekend estimates
- Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise history
- Biggest third weekends of all time
- Fastest films to $500 million domestic box office
- Black Panther daily tracking vs. $650 million-plus movies

- Red Sparrow Comparisons
- Death Wish Comparisons
- Game Night Comparisons
- Annihilation Comparisons
- Every Day Comparisons

- Peter Rabbit Comparisons
- Fifty Shades Freed comparisons
-
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Comparisons
- The 15:17 to Paris Comparisons
- The Greatest Showman Comparisons
- Early Man Comparisons

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Black Panther, Star Wars Ep. VIII: The Last Jedi, Red Sparrow, Death Wish, The Shape of Water, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Jennifer Lawrence