Weekend box office: 'Black Panther' conquers the global box office
Weekend box office: Feb. 16-18, 2018
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) - The whole tale of “Black Panther’s” opening weekend won’t completely be told until after Monday’s numbers are officially tallied, but I think it is safe to say that the film had a tremendous weekend that surpassed even the most optimistic expectations that Disney, Marvel or even fans had for the movie’s debut. Right now, we are looking at a three-day total of $192 million and four-day weekend total expected to be in the area of $218 million. And that’s just the domestic side of the equation. Factor in the international numbers and the Sunday total worldwide sits at $361 million. “Black Panther” has a chance of hitting $400 million worldwide by the end of Monday.
What we can say for certain is that “Black Panther” is the highest-grossing President’s Day weekend release ever. “Deadpool,” the previous record holder, brought in $151 million from its holiday weekend release. For more perspective, “Captain America: Civil War” opened to $179 million in May 2016.
With the upcoming “Avengers: Infinity War” release, we’ve been promised a shuffling of the deck of heroes. Well, they’ve already found their king. Wakanda forever.
“Peter Rabbit” finds itself in a healthy second place this weekend as it somehow managed to squeeze past “Fifty Shades Freed” with $17.2 million through Sunday and is expected to add another $5 million on Monday. That will push the family film’s domestic total to $53 million.
“Fifty Shades Freed” will add nearly $17 million over the three-day weekend and will finish Monday with an additional $2 million for a total of $78 million. That’s $10 million behind where “Fifty Shades Darker” was after its second weekend and $50 million behind the first film’s 10-day total. That said, there should be no sense of panic for Universal Pictures as the movie had already grossed $250 million worldwide going into Saturday. With a production budget of $55 million, even the most aggressive promotional campaign would have been paid off eons (relatively speaking) ago.
“Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” is expected to finish in fourth place and will finish Monday with an additional $10 million. That will put the film just below $380 million in America alone. The worldwide total is already north of $900 million.
“The 15:17 to Paris” added $7.6 million for the three-day weekend. That pushes the Clint Eastwood film’s total to $25.4 million against a $300 million production budget. Reaction from critics and moviegoers alike has been tepid at best.
“The Greatest Showman” added just over $5 million this weekend. Add in $1 million on Monday and the domestic total for the musical starring Hugh Jackman as P. T. Barnum will have earned $155 million in the U.S.
“Early Man,” Aardman Animations’ newest stop-motion film, managed only $3.1 million. It will finish Monday under $5 million.