‘Black Panther’ Roars to a Record-Breaking Debut

With an astounding $201.8 million over its first three days, Marvel Studios’ Black Panther leapt into the top five domestic openings of all time and shattered the record for a February debut. The film has grossed $242 million over the Presidents Day holiday weekend, making it the second highest four-day domestic opening of all time. Combined with a stellar international debut of $169 million, Black Panther’s has earned over $370 million globally through Sunday, February 18—rising to $427 million with Monday’s global included.

It’s just the fifth film in industry history to break the $200 million mark in its debut, joining Star Wars: The Force AwakensStar Wars: The Last Jedi, and Marvel’s The Avengers as Disney’s fourth release to do so. The Walt Disney Studios now holds eight of the top 10 all-time domestic debuts, five of them from Marvel Studios.

Kicking off with a domestic February preview record of $25.2 million, Black Panther grossed $75.8 million in its first day, followed by the fourth biggest Saturday ever with $65.9 million, the second-best Sunday in history with $60.1 million, behind only Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and remarkably, the biggest Monday ever with $40.2 million. It is the 18th No. 1 debut out of 18 releases in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the ninth MCU release to open above $100 million.

Internationally, Black Panther opened day and date with North America in nearly 70 percent of the marketplace, with No. 1 debuts in almost all territories and particularly strong starts in the U.K. and Korea. In the U.K. and Ireland, the film set a new February opening weekend record (including previews) and has already overtaken the entire runs of Captain America: The First AvengerThorAnt-Man, and Iron Man. In Korea, Black Panther was the fifth biggest Western industry opening of all time and has already exceeded the entire runs of Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man. The film has yet to open in Russia (February 22), Japan (March 1) and China (March 9).

Black Panther has earned raves from critics and audiences alike. It received a rare A+ CinemaScore from audiences and has an exceptional 97-percent Certified Fresh aggregate critics score on RottenTomatoes, the highest ever for a Marvel film.