Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Marvel’s ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ lorded over the box office this weekend, earning $180 million in North America and providing a much-needed lift to beleaguered cinemas, reports ‘Variety’.

The sequel demolished the record for a November opening, soaring past the previous high-water mark of $158 million set by 2013’s ‘Hunger Games: Catching Fire’. Globally, the superhero adventure netted a monstrously good $330 million, with $150 million of that figure coming from 55 overseas markets, ‘Variety’ adds.

With an opening weekend as rock-solid as this one, ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ is not very far from the 10th position in the Hollywood Top 10 grossers list for 2022. The present occupant of that position is the Tom Holland-Mark Wahlberg-starrer ‘Uncharted’ at $401.7 million on a list that is topped by ‘Top Gun: Maverick‘ ($1.486 billion).

The filmmakers faced a shocking off-screen tragedy before production even commenced when Chadwick Boseman, the actor who had given 2018’s ‘Black Panther’ so much of its soul, died in 2020 from cancer. He was only 43 years old.

In response, Ryan Coogler, the film’s director and co-writer, re-fashioned ‘Black Panther 2’ into a tribute for the late actor. In the movie, the kingdom of Wakanda is grappling with the death of King T’Challa — an art-imitates-life situation that gave the film greater emotional resonance.

Critics praised Coogler’s deft handling of the difficult material, with Owen Gleiberman of ‘Variety’ writing that ‘Wakanda Forever’ “has a slow-burn emotional suspense. Once the film starts to gather steam, it doesn’t let up.”

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