'Black Panther' Is Still Unstoppable
by EG
Black Panther stayed on top of the box-office charts for a fifth weekend in a row, becoming the first movie to accomplish that feat in almost a decade. That was bad news for Tomb Raider and all the other movies that have been released in the last month, but it was great news for Disney and Marvel.
Ryan Coogler's Black Panther continued to make history in its fifth weekend at the domestic box office with a haul of $27 million, burying Tomb Raider and becoming only the seventh film ever to cross the $600 million mark in North America.
The other big headline of the weekend was Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate's faith-based film I Can Only Imagine, which vastly overperformed. The movie debuted to $17.1 million from 1,628 cinemas to defeat A Wrinkle in Time and Love, Simon — the first film from a major Hollywood studio featuring a gay teen protagonist — in a surprise upset.
Black Panther is the first film since Avatar eight years ago to top the chart for five consecutive weekends, and only the third pic to do so in 19 years after Avatar and The Sixth Sense. The Disney and Marvel superhero movie finished Sunday with a domestic total of $605.4 million and $1.182 billion globally. In the U.S., it is only days away from overtaking fellow Marvel film The Avengers ($623 million) to become the top-grossing superhero pic of all time in North America, unadjusted for inflation.
Tomb Raider's muted domestic bow of $23.5 million from 3,854 theaters is a disappointment for Warner Bros. and MGM, which partnered in rebooting the female-led franchise that is based on the videogame. In the early 2000s, the Tomb Raider film series — starring Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft — beat the curse that continues to haunt videogame adaptations.
Norwegian filmmaker Roar Uthaug (The Wave) directed the new Tomb Raider, which stars Alicia Vikander opposite Dominic West, Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu and Kristin Scott Thomas. The $90 million film earned a mediocre B CinemaScore, potentially hurting word of mouth. Females made up just 44 percent of ticket buyers.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
Did you see a movie last weekend? Tell us which one in the comments below.