Black Panther: Wakanda Forever retained its hold on the domestic box office during a sluggish theatrical weekend to become the first film this year to sit atop the standings over an impressive four-week stretch. The Ryan Coogler-directed narrative added $17.59 million to its collective total to conclude its fourth theatrical weekend, bringing its domestic earnings to $393.7 million.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever made its long-awaited premiere in early November and has continued its record-setting pace with no signs of slowing down. The crowd-pleasing film is the concluding chapter of Phase Four for Marvel Studios, which looks to charge forward with the introduction of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania to kickoff Phase Five early next year. The Black Panther sequel has benefited from the absence of hefty competition, which will undoubtedly change in the coming weeks.
As reported by Deadline, the Marvel Studios film accumulated $17.59 million to win the domestic box weekend, becoming the first film since 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home to do so over four consecutive weekends. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever currently sits third in the domestic box office standings for the year, surpassing Jurassic World: Dominion. However, the Black Panther sequel remains further behind Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Paramount's Top Gun: Maverick.
Universal's Violent Night looked to play spoiler this weekend as the only new release to hit theaters, but the narrative fell short and ended its premiere weekend in second place with a $13.3 million performance. Disney's Strange World finished its second theatrical weekend in third, earning $4.9 million, followed by Searchlight's The Menu and Sony's Devotion. The notable absence from the weekend slate was Netflix's Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which performed well over the Thanksgiving holiday. Unfortunately, the film was only allowed to play for one week across select theaters, making the options fairly slim for audiences.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has taken advantage of the limited theatrical offerings, but things will look to shift with Avatar: The Way of Water approaching next weekend. The James Cameron-directed narrative will look to leave its imprint on theaters to close out the year, but questions still linger about audience interest in the film due to the thirteen-year gap between the sequel and the original. It will be interesting to see how competitive the competition between the two narratives will be once they clash, but neither appears to be in the running to dethrone Top Gun: Maverick as the year's highest-grossing film.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is currently playing in theaters.
Source: Deadline
