Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Claws Up Another $67.3 Million In Marvel's Smallest Second Weekend Drop Of 2022 [Update]
Update: Sunday's numbers (via Variety) put the second weekend domestic total for "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" at $67.3 million, slightly higher than the $66 million projected on Saturday. The headline has been updated to reflect this. Original article follows.
"Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" is on a pretty solid box office run for Marvel Studios, starting with a $180 million opening weekend. That placed as the second-most successful opening weekend this year, right behind its Marvel Cinematic Universe sibling, "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness."
How well the "Black Panther" sequel will do in this long run has yet to be seen, but with a fairly seriously lack of competition at cineplexes this month, the future for the film looks bright. "Wakanda Forever" serves as both a cinematic funeral for franchise star Chadwick Boseman — who played King T'Challa, aka the Black Panther — and as a way forward from the Blip of Marvel's Phase Three. It's been hailed for its emotional resonance (read our review!), but will it be enough to defeat some of its box office competitors?
According to The Wrap, "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" is projected to earn another $66 million in its second weekend. That's 63% lower than the domestic take for its opening weekend, which sounds like a hefty drop but really isn't all that steep for an MCU movie, since they tend to be very front-loaded. Both "Multiverse of Madness" and "Thor: Love and Thunder" dropped by larger margins (67% and 68%, respectively) than "Wakanda Forever," giving it the smallest second weekend drop for an MCU movie this year. That bodes very well for the flick's chances, especially going into the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
A bounty at the box office
"Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" comes from director Ryan Coogler and follows Shuri (Letitia Wright), M'Baku (Winston Duke), Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), and the rest of T'Challas family, loved ones, and allies as they try to pick up the pieces and move forward in a world without him. It's a bit more sentimental than some of the other MCU entries, but that doesn't mean fans didn't swarm the theaters on opening weekend to make sure they can avoid spoilers and get all of the fun surprises first. Easter eggs, cameos, and post-credit sequences make MCU movies must-see on opening weekend for a large swath of the fan base, so it's not really shocking that there's a sharper drop in the second weekend than many other blockbusters.
"Wakanda Forever" doesn't have too much competition this weekend, facing off against limited engagement screenings of a crowdfunded Christian series called "The Chosen," the deliciously dark horror-comedy "The Menu," and the Harvey Weinstein sex abuse journalism drama "She Said." The only potential competition facing the movie through the end of the month is the Rian Johnson whodunnit "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery," but that's pretty different genre-wise and many people are likely going to just wait until December when the movie drops on Netflix.
We'll have to see how it all shakes out, but unless people really go wild for "Glass Onion," it looks like "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" is going to be the king of November.