‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ took the box office throne as expected. Easily surpassing $100 million the Marvel flick flooded the box office with $181.3 million over the weekend.
Since On Genre began only two films have premiered to higher box office. ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ swung in with $254 million last December. Back in May of this year, ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ conjured up $187.4 million. Both films are, like ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’, part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Directed by Ryan Coogler the film stars Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o and Tenoch Huerta as Namor, the Sub-Mariner. After the death of actor Chadwick Boseman in 2020 there was doubt a sequel would be made at all as well as who might take over the role of Black Panther a.k.a. T’Challa. The movie takes a bold choice to move forward without recasting the character. Instead, the remaining characters in the movie wrestle with the death of T’Challa and the mantle of Black Panther is inherited.
‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ brings to a close phase four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As Marvel fans know the interconnectivity of Marvel movies are loosely organized in phases. Phase one brought the Avengers together. Phase two brought the superheroes challenges that would pull them apart. Phase three, the lead up to the ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Endgame’. Phase four has been so loosely connected it seems only Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige knows what the point is.
Regardless, ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ will stay number one in theaters for the foreseeable future.
Rock doesn’t beat ‘Black Panther’.
Former box office winner ‘Black Adam’, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, falls down into second place with a weekend total fo $8.1 million. As ‘Wakanda Forever’ has debuted with just over 22 times that amount you can see how the top spot is unlikely to change for the rest of this year.
Romantic comedy ‘Ticket to Paradise’ lands in the middle of the Weekend Box Office Top 5 with $5.9 million. Julia Roberts and George Clooney will likely keep ‘Ticket to Paradise’ afloat in theaters for a while longer.
One surprise popped up over the weekend.
Children’s film ‘Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile’ bit back into the Top 5 after a two-week hiatus. Chomping up $3.2 million, the animated musical has taken the fourth spot on the Weekend Box Office Top 5. ‘Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile’ stars Constance Wu.
Rounding out the Top 5 is horror hit ‘Smile’, starring Sosie Bacon. The horror flick is left smiling with $2.3 million.
What’s next for theaters?
Next weekend brings limited releases for horror thrillers ‘Bones and All’, starring Timothee Chalamet, and ‘The Menu’ starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Fiennes and Nicolas Hoult.
Thanksgiving weekend will see Disney animated film ‘Strange World’ go up against Jonathan Majors’ war vehicle ‘Devotion’. Neither are likely to top ‘Wakanda Forever’.
Even Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical memory piece ‘The Fabelman’s’ is scheduled for a limited release at the beginning of December. Seemingly in only four theaters. While such a platform release (platforming being a reference to limited releases), may work for small films from unproven talent, in the case of Spielberg, Hollywood’s number one top director, the limitation feels more like a novelty release.
Has Hollywood changed so much?
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (November 11 – 13, 2022)
- ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ – $181.3 million – fantasy (debut)
- ‘Black Adam’ – $8.1 million – fantasy (drop $10.2 million, 56% down)
- ‘Ticket to Paradise’ – $5.9 million – romance (drop $2.6 million, 31% down)
- ‘Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile’ – $3.2 million – children’s film (return to Top 5)
- ‘Smile’ – $2.3 million – horror (drop $1.7 million, 43% down)
Total for the Weekend Box Office Top 5 is a whopping $200.8 million. This a gain of $156.8 million, a 356% increase over last weekend’s total of $44 million.