"Black Panther" has pulled off the extremely rare fifth-straight weekend box office win.
- With an estimated $27.02 million, "Black Panther" won the box office for a fifth-straight weekend.
- It's the first movie to pull that off since 2009's "Avatar."
- "Black Panther" is projected to earn $461 million in profit after its theatrical run and all ancillaries are through.
Disney/Marvel's "Black Panther" has hit another box office milestone.
Winning the domestic box office this weekend with an estimated $27.02 million, according to boxofficepro, it marks the movie's fifth-straight week atop at No. 1. It's the first time a movie has pulled off that feat since the 2009 box office sensation, "Avatar."
It's also the first-ever comic book movie to do it.
The "Black Panther" totals are astounding: $605.4 million domestically, over $1.1 billion worldwide.
When the $200 million-budgeted movie is through with its theatrical and ancillary run, it's projected to have an estimated profit of a whopping $461 million, according to Deadline. That's more than previous Marvel hits "Avengers: Age of Ultron ($382.3 million) and "Captain America: Civil War" ($193.4 million).
"Black Panther" has done this by completely destroying Hollywood's previous box office theories.
Movies released in February have always been considered to be a dumping ground for studios' projected poor performers: "Black Panther" proved that a hit movie can thrive in the first quarter of the year.
Urban audiences are thought to not be moviegoers. Wrong. Close to 40% of the movie's domestic box office is from African-Americans.
And China, the second-largest movie market in the world, is still a guessing game for Hollywood in what will play well there and what won't. Turns out "Black Panther" works. The movie has already earned over $66 million there — out-grossing the "Star Wars" movies that have played there ("The Last Jedi" earned $42.5 million in the Middle Kingdom) and on pace to be one of the top Marvel Cinematic Universe titles released in China.
Now the question is: What movie will dethrone "Black Panther"?
Warner Bros.'s "Tomb Raider" tried and failed this weekend. Though the Lara Croft reboot starring Alicia Vikander beat out "Black Panther" on Friday by taking in $9 million over the $7.5 million by "Panther," the weekend proved to favor the box office champ.
"Tomb Raider" finished in second with $23 million.
Up next to take on "Black Panther" will be Universal's "Pacific Rim Uprising."
More "Black Panther":
- The 7 biggest questions we had after watching Marvel's "Black Panther," and hope are answered in the sequel
- All the futuristic technologies in "Black Panther," and how close they are to becoming reality
- The February box-office success of "Black Panther" is a rarity for the movie business — but industry insiders say that's about to change
- Michael B. Jordan added 15 pounds of muscle after "Creed" to play the villain in "Black Panther" — here's how he did it