Black Panther has smashed box office records, netting an estimated $387 million in its opening weekend.
The film – which recently achieved a rare 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes – stars Chadwick Boseman as King T’Challa, the beleagured leader of fictional kingdom Wakanda, alongside Luptia Nyong’o and Michael B Jordan. It hit UK cinemas on February 12.
NME dubbed the film ‘the best Marvel movie yet’ in our review.
Now, the opening weekend figures for Black Panther have cemented that promise. As The New York Times report, ComScore estimates a $387 million first weekend taking for the film. This would make it the top-grossing film by a black director (Ryan Coogler) and featuring a predominantly black cast. The previous record for this was held by Straight Outta Compton, which comparatively grossed $214 million worldwide in 2015, across its entire release.
Right-wing trolls had previously launched a campaign to give Black Panther purposely low user scores on Rotten Tomatoes in protest against Disney’s increased spotlight on BME and female characters in recent years.
Speaking to Huffington Post recently, director Coogler responded to this attempt at thwarting the success of his movie, saying: “For me, I’m looking forward to everybody seeing the film. I’m really looking forward to sharing the film with audiences regardless of what their political views are … that’s kind of where I [stand on that]”.