“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” had the big challenge of following up on “Black Panther,” one of the biggest blockbusters of all time, and had to do it without star Chadwick Boseman, who died in 2020.   

  Despite all the challenges, “Wakanda Forever” scored a pretty big box office opening this weekend.  The Marvel film opened to about $180 million in North America, according to the film’s studio, Disney.   

  The opening represents one of the best openings of the year and makes the superhero film the highest-grossing November debut ever.  The original record was held by “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” which earned $158 million in November 2013. The box office haul is coming in where most in Hollywood predicted.   

  The film has earned $330 million worldwide so far.   

  It’s no surprise why ‘Wakanda Forever’ did so well this weekend.   

  The film, which stars Letitia Wright and Angela Bassett as the princess and queen of the African country of Wakanda, comes from Marvel Studios – the most lucrative brand in all of Hollywood – and is the sequel to one of the most popular films of all time .   

  When “Black Panther” hit theaters in February 2018, it opened the weekend with a staggering $202 million.  It went on to gross $1.3 billion worldwide and earned multiple Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.  The film is considered one of the best of the comic book genre and one of Marvel’s best.   

  Audiences likely also bought a ticket to “Wakanda Forever” to see how the film and director Ryan Coogler would handle Boseman’s death.  In an interview with Empire magazine in September, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige said that “I just felt like it was too soon” to renew the late actor.  Boseman died at the age of 43 from colon cancer.   

  In terms of its critical reception, “Wakanda Forever” scored an 84% on review site Rotten Tomatoes.  Audiences also gave the film an “A” on CinemaScore.   

  “‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ took on an inordinate degree of difficulty in dealing with the tragic death of Chadwick Boseman,” CNN media critic Brian Lowry wrote in his review.  “That the film manages to strike that grim chord and still deliver as Marvel-style entertainment represents a major achievement.”   

  The film’s good opening comes at the right time for theaters and Disney.   

  For cinemas, the industry needed a blockbuster to boost numbers as new, worthwhile films have been hard to come by in recent months.   

  As for Disney, shares of the media giant fell 13% on Wednesday after the company reported that its streaming business lost $1.4 billion last quarter, despite growth in its subscriber base.   

  The debut of “Wakanda Forever” is unlikely to affect Disney stock, as investors remain very focused on the company’s streaming efforts.  But the strong box office performance helps Disney end a bad week on a high note.   

  It could also help build momentum for theaters with another potential Disney hit on the horizon next month: “Avatar: The Way of Water.”