Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Pushes Disney Over $3 Billion at Box Office for the Year

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hit theaters last weekend, and it's already one of the biggest hits of the year. The film is being greeted with great reviews and a tremendous response from audiences with an 84% Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an A CinemaScore. Now, it seems that the sequel has another accolade to place under its belt. After Wakanda Forever's massive $381 million debut, Disney has officially passed $3 billion at the box office for the year. This marks the 14th year that the studio has hit that milestone, and it passes last years $2.9 billion total. The film combined with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, Lightyear, and Death on the Nile all contributed to the final number.

Marvel Studios unveiled their plans for the next three years, with two new Avengers movies being announced. Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars will both make their way into theaters in 2025. One thing that wasn't announced on the slate was a third Black Panther movie. Even though it's all but guaranteed that fans will receive a third Black Panther movie, Marvel producer Nate Moore revealed during a recent interview that the studio and Ryan Coogler both want to see the fan response to the highly-anticipated sequel before agreeing to do a third film in the franchise. 

"That's a great question. To be honest, this is not me trying to not answer the question," Moore said. "We really want to see how audiences receive the film, and I think Ryan's really interested to see how the film plays before we decide. There are certainly ideas we've floated around of what a third film could be if we get to make it. But until the movie comes out, we're a bit superstitious in that way. We don't want to count our chickens, because you never know what's going to happen."

In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Shuri (Letitia Wright), M'Baku (Winston Duke), Okoye (Danai Gurira) and the Dora Milaje (including Florence Kasumba), fight to protect their nation from intervening world powers in the wake of King T'Challa's death. As the Wakandans strive to embrace their next chapter, the heroes must band together with the help of War Dog Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o) and Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) and forge a new path for the kingdom of Wakanda.  It has yet to be seen where the Midnight Angels tie into the story.

Introducing Tenoch Huerta as Namor, king of a hidden undersea nation, the film also stars Dominque Thorne, Michaela Coel, Mabel Cadena and Alex Livanalli. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is exclusively in theaters now!

How many times have you seen Black Panther: Wakanda Forever? Let us know in the comments below or by hitting up our writer @NateBrail on Twitter!