'Black Panther' Officially Crosses $1 Billion At Worldwide Box Office

Black Panther is now officially a member of the $1 billion club.

Marvel's latest juggernaut just crossed the $1 billion mark in the worldwide box office, and more astounding is it did it in only 26 days (via Variety). Domestically alone the film has already brought in $521 million, ranking it as the ninth highest movie of all time. It even has a chance move further up that list, as it is not very far away from The Dark Night's $535 million.

It will be the 16th Disney movie to reach that $1 billion total and the fifth Marvel Studios project. That elite group includes films like The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Iron Man 3, and Captain America: Civil War. All-time Black Panther could overtake a few more competitors before it completes its run. Ahead of it are films like The Dark Knight, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Zootopia, Alice In Wonderland, and Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace.

As to why the film is resonating with audiences, director Ryan Coogler credits it to a few reasons, but one of the most significant ones is that Black Panther is not like other superhero films.

"I would say cultural aspects is a big thing," Coogler said. "Obviously, T'Challa is an African king and there haven't really been many movies made about that at all in any genre. When you look at the movies in the Marvel universe automatically, off the bat, that's going to make that very different.

"But I also think that this movie has a lot of weird combinations," he continues. "We're dealing with a guy who's royal, like Thor, but he's from Earth, which changes things. It gives it context and grounds it in a way. Even though we're doing a lot of fantastical elements, fantastical technology, it still kind of grounds it in a way that's very unique. So you have these things that are working at opposite ends."

Black Panther hits Digital HD, Blu-ray, and DVD later this year, and is in theaters now.