The king of Wakanda roared into theaters.
"Black Panther" has grossed an estimated R2.2 billion ($192 million) at movie box offices, including Thursday night early showings, surpassing the opening weekend numbers of all other Marvel films except for the first "Avengers." The figure also gives "Black Panther" the fifth highest opening weekend gross of all time.
The film's total take over the President's Day weekend is expected to be around R2.5 billion ($218 million), eclipsing the film's R2.3 billion ($200 million) budget."
As 3-day weekend totals go for Marvel films, "The Avengers" made R2.4 billion ($207.44 million) in 2012, "Avengers: Age of Ultron" followed that with R2.2 billion ($191.27 million) in 2015, and "Captain America: Civil War" grossed R2 billion ($179.14 million) in 2016.
"Black Panther" is a big-budget superhero film helmed by an African American director ― Ryan Coogler, who also co-wrote the script. It also features a nearly all black cast, including Lupita Nyong'o, Michael B. Jordan, Angela Bassett, Daniel Kaluuya and Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa, aka Black Panther.
Historically, this isn't something we're used to seeing out of Hollywood. But you can't argue with these numbers. Or the glowing reviews from critics.