Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Projected to Win Thanksgiving Weekend Box Office Over Strange World

The Thanksgiving holiday weekend box office is setting itself up to be another win for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Disney is poised to dominate Thanksgiving with the release of the animated picture Strange Worlds, along with another week of the Black Panther sequel. Disney fans may have gotten used to seeing new animated projects drop on Disney+, but the theatrical business is booming once again. While Strange Worlds will have an audience in theaters, it’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever that’s expected to claim the top spot during the Thanksgiving weekend with around $40 million between Wednesday and Sunday.

As for Strange Worlds, it’ll open to around 4,000 theater screens in the U.S. for a projected $30 million to $40 million. This obviously isn’t a huge number, but considering how family-friendly movies have fared during the pandemic, it’s not a bad box office for Strange Worlds. For example, Encanto had $40.3 million during the same Thanksgiving holiday weekend back in 2021. Films such as Frozen II ($123.7 million), Ralph Breaks the Internet ($84.6 million), and Coco ($71 million) did much better in pre-pandemic times. For now, this is the new normal.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Cut LGBTQ Scene in Kuwait

An LGBTQ scene in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has reportedly been cut from the Marvel film’s Kuwait release. The Black Panther sequel has a few different subplots, including the introductions of Namor the Sub-Mariner and Riri Williams, and Wakanda mourning the loss of King T’Challa, played by the late Chadwick Boseman. Unfortunately, when a project includes LGBTQ content, there is the possibility it can and will be stripped once it’s released overseas. This appears to be the case with Wakanda Forever, as a very short affectionate scene between Michaela Coel’s Aneka and Florence Kasumba’s Ayo was removed in Kuwait.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Kuwait release of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever included a small number of edits. Those edits amount to just over one minute, which includes the scene between Dora Milaje members Aneka and Ayo. Another scene removed came when a woman gives birth and there is the line, “A god to his people.” What makes the Kuwait cut interesting is it’s the only country in that territory to remove a scene. THR also reports Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, and Qatar are screening Black Panther: Wakanda Forever unedited. All of these countries are known for scrapping any form of LGBTQ content.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Opening Night Box Office

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever raked in $28 million domestically in its Thursday previews, making it the fifteenth-highest preview total of all time. The Letitia Wright-led film will show in a total of 4,396 theaters on Friday.  Current projections have Black Panther 2 opening in the $185 million to $200 million range, and this early haul gives it strong momentum. By comparison, Multiverse of Madness earned $36 million in its domestic previews and wound up securing $187 million in its opening weekend, while Love and Thunder launched to $29 million in its Thursday showings before bringing in $143 million in its opening weekend. 

This opening does put it over 2018’s Black Panther, which debuted to $25.2 million in its Thursday showings. That film went on to become the most successful first standalone film in MCU history, generating a colossal $202 million opening weekend en route to a $1.3 billion worldwide total.