'Black Panther' Makes Double of 'Justice League' Opening Box Office

02/18/2018 02:07 pm EST

Surprising absolutely no one, the premiere of Black Panther has been yet another unmitigated success for Marvel Studios. But the degree of its success is another story entirely.

The Ryan Coogler-helmed superhero film is well on its way to becoming the the second-most successful Marvel opening of all time, just behind The Avengers. The $192 million 3-day opening in domestic markets cracks the top 5, making it more successful than every other superhero opening in 2017, including Justice League.

In fact, in it's opening weekend, Black Panther's domestic haul is more than double what Justice League made in its debut, which only made $93.8 million.

That domestic gross also pushes Black Panther past Justice League in worldwide estimates, making $361 million to the DC Films team-up epic's $278.8 million.

The film also beat out every other Marvel Studios except the first Avengers movie, Logan, Wonder Woman, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy.

While this might seem like false comparisons, it goes to prove that the anticipation for Black Panther has been building since the character's appearance in Captain America: Civil War (which it also beat in opening hauls at the domestic market).

Years ago, it would likely be unheard of to estimate that the first Black Panther movie would beat out the first ever big-screen feature of the Justice League finally teaming up, much less doubling the latter's box office haul. But Black Panther is now a bonafide cultural phenomenon.

Audiences have shown they're looking for unique superhero offerings, such as Wonder Woman, Logan, and Deadpool, to differentiate from the films that have come to saturate movie theaters. And Black Panther also features a predominantly black cast, crew, and creative team, coming in the wake of success stories such as Get Out and Moonlight. The fact that it's coming on a $200 million Marvel Studios budget makes it unlike any other superhero film to date, including the R-rated Blade.

The film has also scored an A+ CinemaScore ranking from audiences and has received overwhelming positive reviews, increasing the vital word-of-mouth factor.

The movie is likely to hold its domination of the box office for weeks to come as more people get out to the theaters and possibly return for multiple viewings. It's another successful step on the path to Avengers: Infinity War, which is all but guaranteed to be yet another success for Marvel Studios and Disney.

Black Panther is now playing in theaters.

(h/t BoxOfficeMojo)

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