Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Ticket Sales Behind Doctor Strange 2
Will Black Panther: Wakanda Forever take the crown for Marvel's biggest blockbuster of the year? Box office projections have the Marvel Studios sequel tracking for a domestic opening weekend of $175-185 million and a massive global opening haul of upwards of $335-365 million — the third-biggest pandemic era debut, behind only Marvel's Spider-Man: No Way Home ($568m) last December and this summer's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($429m). Deadline reports Black Panther 2 has sold $45 million in advanced tickets so far through its first weekend, 40% ahead of July's Thor: Love and Thunder but 20% behind May's Doctor Strange 2 at the same point in time.
According to Deadline, Doctor Strange 2 had amassed $85 million in advance sales by the time of its domestic opening of $187m in May; Thor 4 earned $48m of its $144m domestic opening by the time that film hit theaters for Thursday previews in July.
The Sam Raimi-directed Doctor Strange sequel — which followed Stephen Strange's (Benedict Cumberbatch) appearance in No Way Home, pitting the sorcerer against the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) — broke Fandango's advanced ticket sales record as the fastest seller when tickets became available in April. A week out from its May 6th premiere, Doctor Strange 2 had conjured up $42 million in advanced ticket sales and went on to gross $955m worldwide, the third-highest grossing box office of the year so far after Top Gun: Maverick ($1.48 billion) and Jurassic World Dominion ($1.01 billion).
Black Panther 2's advanced ticket sales are so far the second-highest of the year behind the frontloaded Doctor Strange 2, and by Friday, could climb to $60-$65m — more than its predecessor.
The first Black Panther clawed up $55M in advance tickets by the time of its three-day $202m stateside opening in February 2018, going on to gross $1.3 billion worldwide — making it the second highest-grossing film of that year (behind only Marvel's own Avengers: Infinity War) and the ninth highest-grossing film ever at the time of its release. 2018's Black Panther also became Fandango's best-selling superhero title at the time, besting 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Captain America: Civil War.
Deadline reports Wakanda Forever ticket sales "aren't front-loaded" but are instead evenly spread throughout the Veterans Day holiday weekend. It's expected walkups will give the highly-anticipated Black Panther sequel a boost at the domestic box office, especially with mostly glowing reviews from critics and a strong 88% "fresh" score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Wakanda Forever tickets are now on sale everywhere. Also available are advanced tickets to the Black Panther double feature event, a back-to-back showing of Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.