Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has continued its streak at number 1 in the domestic box office, holding it longer than any film in 2021 or 2022 so far. The film, which is the final theatrical outing from Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, follows the residents of Wakanda grieving the death of their former Black Panther T’Challa. His younger sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) grapples with his loss while also helping her mother Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) figure out how to handle the emergence of a new threat from the underwater territory of Talokan, led by the mutant Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejía).
Per Deadline, the hit film Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is projected to take in an additional $11 million this weekend for a cumulative domestic total of $401.55 million. This will make it number 1 at the box office this weekend, ahead of David Harbour’s Santa action-comedy Violent Night at number 2 and Disney’s Strange World at number 3. This is the fifth weekend in a row where Wakanda Forever has claimed the top slot, a streak that hasn’t been matched since the release of Christopher Nolan’s Tenet in August 2020.
How Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Has Stayed at #1
The reason that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has been able to maintain such a significant box office streak is twofold. The first reason is the legacy of the original 2018 Black Panther. That movie is still one of the best-reviewed and highest-grossing entries in the MCU, as well as the only film from the franchise to have been nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. That legacy would have already led to increased interest in the sequel, but the untimely death of star Chadwick Boseman, to whom this sequel is largely in tribute, led even more audience members to desire to see the film and pay homage to his legacy.
The second reason is the fact that tentpole filmmaking in 2022 is still suffering from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. While films are still being made and released, this year saw fewer major wide releases per weekend as compared to the pre-pandemic average, and the November 11 release of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever came at an unusually slow time with little competition between it and the release of the long-awaited James Cameron sequel Avatar: The Way of Water on December 16. Although Wakanda Forever had to face off against the new wide releases Strange World and Violent Night during the holiday season ramp-up, it handily bested both of those films and claimed this last quiet weekend before Avatar is unleashed upon the world.
While the complicated pandemic era box office helped Black Panther: Wakanda Forever keep its streak going, it helped 2020’s Tenet even more considering the fact that the Nolan epic was the only major wide release of that month. The same thing happened with the horror film The Wretched, which ruled for five weekends in May 2020. However, to find the next film that matches its streak in the pre-pandemic era, one must trace the box office all the way back to the original Black Panther, a project that is (for obvious reasons) much more comparable to the scale of the sequel’s success.
Source: Deadline