'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' Smashes Box Office With Over $330 Million Worldwide

Expectations for "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" were massive, and it looks like the film is already surpassing them where the box office is concerned. Box Office Mojo reports that the Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel has already brought in an estimated $330 million global cume for its first weekend of release.

"Wakanda Forever" the first sequel to the solo "Black Panther" film franchise from Marvel Studios brought in an estimated $181 million at the domestic box office for its opening weekend. As reported by The Blast, that includes $28 million from early Thursday previews.

The Blast reported earlier that the film was initially tracking for an estimated $175 million for its opening weekend, so the film more than surpassed its early box office projections. Typically, that's a good sign for a film's overall box office performance for the long haul.

While the opening weekend fell short of Marvel's May opening weekend of "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," it still gives Marvel Studios the No. 1 and No. 2 biggest opening weekends at the domestic box office of 2022, showing that Marvel Studios is as strong as ever where box office receipts are concerned.

"Wakanda Forever" performed well with critics, with it currently sitting on an 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. For comparison, the 2018 "Black Panther," starring the late Chadwick Boseman, scored a 96% rating with critics.

The first "Black Panther" movie actually opened considerably higher at the domestic box office in February 2018 with about $202 million. However, that was during a holiday weekend and at a different time of the year. That was also during a pre-pandemic marketplace.

The other good news for "Wakanda Forever" is that it will have the box office mostly to itself for most of November. There aren't any other major wide releases coming until November 23, including Sony Pictures' "Devotion" and Disney's own "Strange World." By that time, the sequel will have likely earned most of its cash, and it will still have the Thanksgiving holiday weekend coming to boost its numbers further.

Even December is largely a dead zone for major theatrical releases until James Cameron's "Avatar: The Way of Water" hits theaters on December 16. That's also another Disney-owned property. In other words, The Walt Disney Company will have a pretty firm grip over the box office scene for the rest of the year.

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It's likely some other films released in that timeframe will perform well, but the likelihood of any other film besides "Avatar: The Way of Water" making over $100 million at the box office for its opening weekend seems nil.

The big question right now is if "Wakanda Forever" can pass the $1 billion worldwide mark similar to its predecessor. The first film finished with a global cume of $1.346 billion. That includes $105 million from China. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the sequel is not expected to receive a China release, so that will cause the sequel to take a bit of a hit in terms of its overall global performance.

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However, with the winter holiday months still ahead, "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" will likely continue to perform well and rack up more milestones for Marvel Studios and Disney. It will need to with its roughly $250 million budget, per Variety.

"Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" is directed by Ryan Coogler from a script he co-wrote with Joe Robert Cole. The film stars Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, Winston Duke, Dominique Thorne, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, and Martin Freeman. The film is out now in theaters.