Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Is Tracking For A Massive Opening Weekend At The Box Office
We had a rough handful of weeks at the box office in September and early October with a mere few bright spots along the way. But things are looking up with "Black Adam" opening this weekend and with "Halloween Ends" keeping horror's hot streak alive. But the year's most seemingly massive guaranteed hit is just around the corner in the form of "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," and it's primed to open the floodgates, bringing out moviegoers en masse on near-record levels.
The first official box office tracking for director Ryan Coogler's much-anticipated "Black Panther" sequel have arrived and, as reported by Variety, the film is looking at a massive $175 million opening weekend next month. If that figure holds, it will set a new November record, beating "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire," which debuted to $158 million in 2013. In truth, if anything, the Marvel Cinematic Universe entry is likely to exceed these initial expectations rather than fall short of them. So yeah, it looks like Marvel's hot streak is about to continue in a big way.
"Wakanda Forever" will conclude Phase 4 of the MCU, which kicked off with "WandaVision" in 2020. The biggest thing here is that it will enter theaters without Chadwick Boseman's T'Challa, who anchored the original film and helped to turn it into a $1.33 billion global phenomenon. Boseman tragically passed away in late 2020 following his battle with cancer. Be that as it may, audiences are clearly eager to return to this corner of the MCU to see, amongst other things, the debut of Namor, as well as who will take up the mantle of Black Panther.
How do the numbers stack up?
Now, if we assume that the $175 million figure holds up, it will be a little short of what "Black Panther" did in February 2018, with the film debuting to a gigantic $207 million, en route to a $700 million domestic finish. As far as 2022 goes, the only movie to open bigger was "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," which posted a huge $187 million opening weekend. Now, as far as the pandemic era goes, "Spider-Man: No Way Home" remains the unquestioned king with its staggering $260 million opening weekend/$1.91 billion global finish.
One thing to consider is that Marvel is just about to get its big marketing push underway for this movie, so these early tracking numbers could easily climb. Also, if Coogler really did make a movie as good as those trailers lead us to believe, positive word of mouth could help a lot as well. It would by no means be hard to imagine the movie eclipsing $200 million on opening weekend. Box office tracking has been a little unreliable with some blockbusters in recent years, with even "No Way Home" shattering already optimistic projections. This to say, things are looking very, very good for "Wakanda Forever."
The cast includes Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong'o, Martin Freeman, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Michaela Coel, Angela Bassett, and Tenoch Huerta as Namor.
"Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" hits theaters on November 11, 2022.