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'Black Panther' shatters box office records with opening weekend debut

The film is now projected to earn around $218 million over the four-day President's Day holiday weekend.
Credit: Disney/Marvel
Chadwick Boseman in a scene from "Black Panther."

Everyone's known for a while Black Panther would be a big hit. But the film's now exceeded even those lofty expectations.

Variety.com reported Sunday Black Panther is projected to earn $218 million over the four-day President's Day holiday weekend, based on studio estimates. For the three days (Friday-Sunday) it's expected to pocket $192 million.

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The $192 million figure, if that number holds when final tallies are posted Monday, will make Black Panther the fifth-highest three-day opening weekend of all time, behind only Star Wars: The Force Awakens, in 2015, last year's Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Jurassic World, in 2016, and 2012's The Avengers.

It's expected to edge out 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron, which made $191 million when it debuted in 2015.

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The four-day weekend obliterates the President's Day record set just last year by Fox's Deadpool, which earned $152 million over four days.

For the superhero genre, Black Panther is the second largest opening ever behind Marvel's The Avengers, and the largest ever for a movie featuring a standalone character.

It's also the largest February opening ever, and the largest for a movie released before May.

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Late last month, Disney/Marvel and other analysts were projecting a $100 to $120 million opening for Black Panther. But as it got closer to its release date, those estimates surged to up to $150 million, and finally, to between $170 to $200 million. The film managed to top even those forecasts.

That's partly due to good word of mouth that made the movie a "must-see." The film currently has a 97% rating on critics review aggregator website RottenTomatoes.com, the highest ever for a superhero film. It's also received an "A+" CinemaScore rating from audiences who've seen it so far. The Avengers is the only other Marvel film to receive such a rating.

Black Panther stars South Carolina native Chadwick Boseman in the lead role as Black Panther/King T'Challa. It also features Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Letitita Wright, Sterling K. Brown, as well as Forest Whitaker and Angela Bassett.

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