“Black Panther” burst past industry projections and will set a record with $192 million in ticket sales by the close of business Sunday evening, an analyst said Sunday.
“The expectation-busting performance of Disney’s ‘Black Panther’ shows the sheer power of the theatrical movie-going experience,” gushed industry analyst Paul Dergarabedian.
“Disney’s presentation of the Marvel Entertainment ‘Black Panther’ takes the month of February to the next level, with an expectation-obliterating $192 million performance for the Friday-Sunday portion of the weekend,” Dergarabedian said.
The movie is expected to exceed $218 million in sales through Monday. It is the fifth highest North American opening weekend of all time.
And by the end of Monday’s holiday, this will be the first four-day Presidents Day weekend where Hollywood will to cross the $300 million mark, Dergarabedian said.
“Black Panther” also stands among few films to achieve a perfect 5 out of 5 stars on comScore/Screen Engin’s PostTrak audience survey, with an 88 percent ‘definite recommend,”‘ Degarabedian said.
Audiences were 37 percent African-American, 35 percent Caucasian, 18 percent Hispanic, and 5 percent Asian, the audience measuring company reported. “Black Panther” is the first African-American superhero.
“Peter Rabbit” was in second place, with a $17.3 million second weekend performance. And “Fifty Shades Freed” was in third, with $16.9 million for the first three days of the holiday period.
Rounding out the 10 most-popular films in the United States and Canada, as estimated by the studios and gathered by comScore, were “The 15:17 To Paris” ($7.7 million for the three-day portion of the holiday weekend), “The Greatest Showman” ($5.1 million ), “Early Man” (premiering with a $3.2 million weekend), “Maze Runner: The Death Cure: $2.6 million), “Winchester” ($2.2 million) and “Samson” (premiering at $2 million).
–City News Service