It seems like the movie-going experience is almost back to the way it was before the pandemic, at least according to Disney. Maybe Steven Spielberg disagrees, but he could make a Marvel movie if he really wanted to!
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the long-awaited sequel, arrived in theaters this week and as it turns out, a lot of people decided to spend their Thursday night in Wakanda. Nobody is surprised, but it’s nice to have confirmation.
The sequel racked up $28M in previews from Thursday night, which is a step up from the first installment in 2018, which secured $25.2M in previews. The weekend projection is between $175M-$200M, which is a very typical Marvel movie range. In comparison, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness opened with $187M, while Thor: Love and Thunder took home $144M.
Wakanda Forever revisits the world of Wakanda after the death of its king T’Challa, while also letting fans mourn the passing of Black Panther himself, Chadwick Boseman. The movie stars Letitia Wright, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Florence Kasumba, Dominique Thorne, Michaela Coel, Lupita Nyong’o, Tenoch Huerta, Martin Freeman, and Angela Bassett.
This is the latest Marvel movie to make bank on a Thursday this year: Doctor Strange made $36M in previews this past May, while Love and Thunder earned $29M in July. Again…not surprising!
No word yet on how movie-enthusiast Tom Cruise is feeling after his latest Top Gun installment cracked $19M in previews, before shattering more records as the summer went on. Maybe we shouldn’t tell Cruise, or he’ll try to jump out of a plane. Again.
