This may be President’s Day, but it’s Marvel Monday with “Black Panther” as the king of the box office with a record-breaking $192 million: making this the biggest February opening of all time as well as the biggest President’s Day office, Box Office Mojo reports. Proving that he never freezes, Marvel’s “Black Panther” prowls the second-biggest opening in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) behind 2012’s record-breaking smashing assembly of “The Avengers”, with 2015’s “Age of Ultron” coming in third. By the end of the weekend, the film is set to gross $218 million dollars domestically.
Chadwick Boseman, who made his debut as the titular protector of Wakanda in 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War”, reprise the role of T’Challa, who is thrust into another civil war – this time, for his homeland against the embittered Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan).
Not only is “Black Panther” the first headlined black superhero in the MCU, but he is Marvel’s first headlining black superhero since Wesley Snipes brought new blood in the genre as “Blade”, the half-human, half-vampire slayer who declared open season on all vampires twenty years ago in the summer of 1998. The film debuted at number one and spawned two sequels (2002’s “Blade II” and 2004’s “Blade: Trinity”), and a short-lived 2006 series with rapper-actor Kirk ‘Sticky Fingaz’ Jones succeeding Snipes in the role.
Marvel’s “Black Panther” will return this summer for the possible endgame known as “Avengers: Infinity War”, which will begin on the day that the Avengers became and will become ‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’: May 4.
