Marvel’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” earned $84 million on its opening day (including $28 million in Thursday previews), the second-biggest opening day of the year behind the $90.4 million earned by “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’. It’s good news for the film, even as estimates of $185-200 million for the weekend are now looking a little rosy, with the film likely to fall just shy of that range. The “Strange” sequel has the biggest opening weekend of the year with a $187 million three-day debut in May. Still, exhibitors are celebrating as the film scores the first since July’s “Thor: Love and Thunder” to top $100 million. To show just how big it was, the film’s opening weekend is expected to surpass the $150 million multi-week haul brought in by the second “Black Adam” film so far. Reviews for the film have been more mixed than for its predecessor, but are still mostly positive, with an 84% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes (76% from top critics). The audience rating looks more satisfied with 95% on the website and an ‘A’ grade from exit poll research firm Cinema Score. That’s up from the B+ earned by the other two Marvel movies this year. The film won’t face another high-profile contender until the Thanksgiving weekend release of Disney’s animated adventure film “Strange World.” The Julia Roberts-George Clooney rom-com “Ticket to Paradise” will come in third with a drop of just 26%. Since its release a month ago, it has earned around 3.5 times its opening weekend revenue and has had a long run in theaters. “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” will come in at number four and “Smile” at number five. In limited release, Steven Spielberg’s acclaimed semi-autobiographical drama “The Fabelmans” is on track to average $36,000 per theater on four screens. Source: Variety
