“Black Panther” is expected to reach the $400 million mark on Sunday, posting an estimated $108 million on its second weekend. That gives it a new record for the best pre-summer second weekend in box office history, and beats the Marvel Cinematic Universe record for second weekends held by “The Avengers” with $103 million. The only film ever to post a bigger second frame is “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” with $149.2 million.
After just ten days in theaters, “Black Panther” has surpassed the domestic runs of all of last year’s Marvel films, including the $389 million made by “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.” It currently ranks fifth among all MCU films, and will pass “Iron Man 3” for the No. 3 spot on the list by Tuesday at the latest.
Worldwide, “Black Panther” now has a total of $704 million, keeping its overseas drop to 42 percent with $83.8 million grossed in 49 markets. The film now ranks tenth globally among all MCU films, passing “Doctor Strange” and “Ant-Man” on the charts and putting it in position to pass the $714 million total for “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” tomorrow. It is also the fastest MCU film to gross $50 million on IMAX screens worldwide, adding $15 million this weekend to bring its total to $54.6 million. Japan is the next to get release this weekend, followed by China on March 9.
In a distant second place is Warner Bros./New Line’s “Game Night,” which found a decent launch with $16.6 million from 3,488 screens. Opening night demographics show that millennials mostly flocked to “Black Panther,” with 70 percent of those polled by CinemaScore for “Game Night” being over the age of 35. The $37 million film will now look for strong word of mouth to carry the film through March, which it may get with a B+ on CinemaScore and an 81 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Peter Rabbit” is in third with an estimated $12.4 million in its third weekend, putting its domestic gross at $71.1 million. In fourth is Paramount’s dark sci-fi odyssey “Annihilation,” which opened to just $10.8 million from 2,012 screens. The $40 million film has earned praise from critics with an 87 percent RT score, but has fallen flat with audiences with a C on CinemaScore, meaning its chances of finding traction in the box office are unlikely, Read More At MSN.