Black Panther [1] arrived in theaters with its claws out back in February and hasn't stopped smashing records since. Weekend after weekend, we watched the film score huge feats like surpassing the $1 billion mark [2], making it only the 33rd film in movie history to do so. It's also the 16th Disney film to ever reach the milestone. Black Panther [3] joined just four other Marvel movies that have grossed more than a billion dollars at the box office, including The Avengers [4], Avengers: Age of Ultron [5], Iron Man 3 [6], and Captain America: Civil War [7].
It should come as no surprise, then, that Black Panther is now the highest-grossing superhero film of all time [8] in the US. Of all time! The film earned the milestone on March 24, finally surpassing The Avengers, which grossed $623.4 million in 2012. On top of that, the Ryan Coogler-directed hit is only one of seven films to ever earn $600 million or more domestically. Is there any record Black Panther won't break?!
The film is truly unique and historic just as a piece of cinematic art; we've never seen a superhero movie with a nearly all-black cast [9], and this one in particular celebrates the beauty of the cast's natural hair [10] and places a special emphasis on traditional African costumes and African culture. By all means, it's not hard to see why Black Panther means so much to the black community [11]. Then there's the icing on the cake: the amount of records it's been shattering left and right. Ahead are all the other box office records Black Panther has obliterated [12] — so far:
- Fastest 24-hour presale [13] for a Marvel Cinematic Universe film
- Biggest February opening [14]
- Highest grossing film [15] by a black director
- Biggest Monday [16] gross in box office history
- Second biggest four-day weekend [17] gross
- Second biggest Thursday night preview [18] gross for a Marvel film
- Second biggest Sunday [19] gross in box office history
- Fifth biggest opening weekend [20] gross in box office history