Black Panther Rated Best Non-sequential movie after Avartar

The Black Panther Movie which is an integration of different African cultures has taken over the Cinemas as one of the most sort after movies in this Millennium. The demand for this Action movie runs across different continents of the world and it successfully captivated viewers of almost all age groups.
The Black Panther Movie has been awarded the best non-sequential movie by Forbes after Avartar.

Forbes in its statistics revealed that By the end of its seventh weekend, Black Panther should earn around $650 million domestic, taking 35% drop for an $11m weekend gross (give or take the Easter bump). At this point in time, James Cameron’s all-time global box office champion (a record it isn’t giving up anytime soon) had earned “only” $595m from a $77m Fri-Sun debut. It was still topping the box office at the end of January. Adjusted for inflation, it had earned $687m, but I digress. It wouldn’t fall more than 31.5% until its 11th weekend of release. Since Black Panther is taking regular 30-35% weekend falls (still impressive in its own right), at some point the Pandora flick is going to catch up to the Wakanda adventure.

Here’s what intrigues me: I would argue that James Cameron’s outer-space fantasy shares a couple of key traits with Ryan Coogler’s MCU actioner. And, if placed side-by-side, that Black Panther is essentially the second-fastest grossing movie since Avatar (behind only The Force Awakens) and essentially the most successful non-sequel since the James Cameron flick makes a lot of sense. In terms of unapologetic politics and in terms of transporting viewers to an idealistic fantasy world, the two mega-hits are birds of a feather.

First and foremost, the fantastical Afrofuturistic world of Wakanda is something of a one-of-a-kind destination. Allowing viewers to explore and play around in a vividly defined and explicitly detailed fantasy world within the confines of a well-told story is not something to be written off. Be it the world of Hogwarts, the world of Middle Earth or even the 1970’s James Bond movies back when their globe-trotting locales were a huge selling point, there is an inherent appeal of using the cinema as an opportunity to travel to far-off worlds as a kind of filmed travelogue.

It’s no secret that Pandora was a huge part of Avatar’s appeal, to the point where we saw stories about folks allegedly desperate to visit the imaginary world. And catching up with Avatar again (I watched it a month ago for an unrelated future post… my kids were riveted), I was struck by how it was essentially a 2.5-hour exploration. Aside from the 20-minute “final battle” climax, there isn’t a ton of action or violence in the film. It is instead a story of discovery, as we spend time in a wonderous far-away land with Jake Sully as our proverbial tour guide.

Black Panther is a more conventional action-adventure film, even if it doesn’t hit all the MCU formula tropes. While it’s not the first MCU movie to take place in a fantasy world, Wakanda is more unique unto itself compared to Asgard or the outer-space adventures of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Moreover, I will argue that Wakanda is inherently more one-of-a-kind due to its demographic make-up and how it functions as a what-if? fantasy of an African nation untouched by colonization and imperialism. The fantasy of Black Panther is aimed at demographics are not usually targeted in such far-out fantastic fare.

The BLACK PANTHER STORY……………………………………………..Back In 1992, a little Black kid on a makeshift basketball court in Oakland, California disrupts his game to glance up at the sky. Figuratively, he’s looking at the loss of hope, a departure represented by glowing lights drifting away into the night. As we learn later, those lights belong to a futuristic flying machine returning to the mysterious African country of Wakanda, the setting of “Black Panther." The young man was once told by his father that Wakanda had the most wonderful sunsets he would ever see, so he cradles that perceived vision of beauty through his darkest hours. When he finally sees the sun go down over Wakanda, it provokes a haunting emotional response.


According to Box Office mojo, It had to happen at some point and this was the weekend that saw Black Panther's streak as the #1 film at the weekend box office come to an end at the hands of Pacific Rim Uprising. That being said, it wasn't a down weekend for Black Panther at all as it became the highest grossing superhero film of all-time, topping The Avengers with a domestic cume that now totals $630.9 million, becoming one of the top five domestic releases of all-time.

This weekend also saw another stellar performance for Roadside and Lionsgate's I Can Only Imagine, which finished in third place, topping Paramount and MGM's Sherlock Gnomes, which struggled over the course of its opening weekend, falling short of pre-weekend expectations.

At the top, Universal and Legendary's Pacific Rim Uprising delivered an estimated $28 million three-day opening from 3,708 locations. While not a stellar opening for a film of this size, it is well above Mojo's forecast as well as above Universal's expectations heading into the weekend. The performance is almost spot on with Edge of Tomorrow, which was one of our pre-weekend comparisons and went on to gross just over $100 million domestically, a number the studio would likely be more than happy with as it would only be ~$2 million shy of the first film's domestic performance. However, in all likelihood, it will fall short of the century mark domestically, though given this film was always more of a global play, that's unlikely to be much of an issue.

Speaking of which, Uprising brought in an estimated $122.5 million internationally this weekend, including a $65 million debut in China, ~$20 million more than the first film's opening weekend in the market before it went on to gross over $111 million. All told, the film's $150.5 million worldwide start also included #1 openings in Korea ($6.9 million); Russia ($6.8 million); Mexico ($4.9 million); Indonesia ($3.7 million); Taiwan ($3.4 million); and Brazil ($1.6 million).

In terms of demographics, Pacific Rim Uprising received a "B" CinemaScore from opening day audiences which broke down as 62% male vs. 38% female, of which 53% of the overall audience was 25 years or older.

This leaves Disney and Marvel's Black Panther in second place after five weeks atop the weekend box office. This weekend the film pulled in an estimated $16.65 million, pushing the film's domestic cume over $630 million, making it the highest grossing comic book adaptation of all-time, surpassing The Avengers ($623.3m). Panther is also now the fifth largest overall domestic release of all-time, just $21.3 million behind Jurassic World with a shot at also topping Titanic to become the third largest all-time by the end of its domestic run.

Internationally, Black Panther grossed an estimated $12.9 million, pushing its international cume to $606.4 million for a global tally topping $1.237 billion. The film now ranks as the twelfth largest worldwide release of all-time, passing The Fate of the Furious ($1.236b) and is just behind Beauty and the Beast ($1.263b). Panther currently stands as the third largest worldwide release among films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe ranking behind the two Avengers films.