'Black Panther' Projected to Make Over $460 Million in Profit

As one may expect given its box office performance, Black Panther is expected to bring in a tidy sum for Disney Pictures.

Black Panther remained atop the box office for a fifth week in a row, a feat that no movie has pulled off since Avatar opened in 2009. The film is expected to reach $605 million domestic by the end of the weekend.

Analysts now project that the film will conclude its box office run with approximately $650 million domestic and $1.25 billion earned worldwide. That means, according to Deadline's Hollywood financial experts, the film should bring home $461 million in profit for the studio after all ancillaries.

That's a higher profit margin than some of Marvel Studios' biggest tentpole films to date, including Avengers: Age of Ultron, which netted $382.3 million in profit in 2015, and Captain America: Civil War, which profited $193.4 million in 2016.

The wide profit margin is partly due to Black Panther outperforming all expectations, but also partly because of the young cast and director. While director Joss Whedon came relatively cheap for the first Avengers movies, he made sure he got paid based on that first film's record-breaking performance when he signed on for the sequel, which affected Disney's profit margin in a significant way. Both Avengers movies and Captain America: Civil War also had to pay Robert Downey Jr. a percentage based on profit, which further impacted how much Disney was able to bank.

Even by comparing Black Panther outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it is estimated that the Fast & Furious cast - which included such draws as Vin Diesel and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson - cost Universal 40 cents for $1 the movie made. There's nothing comparable to that ratio, Whedon's pay, or Downey's profit participation - which Downey's co-star Paul Bettany wants in on - to cut into the profits from Black Panther in such a major way, though it should be interesting to see how that changes going into the seemingly inevitable (though not officially announced) sequel.

It should be noted that these numbers are estimates based on analysis by independent experts in the area of film finance. They were not provided or confirmed by Disney.

Black Panther is now in theaters. Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Avengers: Infinity War on April 27th, Ant-Man and the Wasp on July 6th, Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 5, 2019, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020.

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