Marvel's Black Panther has pulled in enough money at the worldwide box office to become one of the top 20 highest-grossing movies of all-time. Directed by Ryan Coogler from a script co-written by Coogler and screenwriter Joe Robert Cole, Black Panther stars Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa and Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger. While it was one of the most highly-anticipated movies of the year, it's clear that Black Panther has surpassed all expectations and has become an enormous critical and commercial success for Marvel Studios.

With a whopping 97 percent critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, Black Panther is the highest-rated live-action superhero movie ever to release, which certainly helped boost its advanced ticket sales. And all those pre-sale tickets contributed to Black Panther topping Deadpool's February opening record in addition to landing one of the highest-grossing opening weekends of all-time. And after breaking virtually every weekday record and staying on top of the box office charts for four weekends straight, Black Panther finally crossed $1 billion this past Saturday - but it didn't stop there.

Related: Black Panther Passes The Dark Knight At U.S. Box Office

Black Panther has now amassed a global total of $1.101 billion at the worldwide box office (via Box Office Mojo), which is more than enough to place it in the top 20 highest-grossing movies of all-time at the worldwide box office. That number places Black Panther exactly in the 20th spot, ahead of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises ($1.084 billion), which has gone from starting out in seventh place in 2012 to now being in 21st.

Thanks to increasing ticket prices, more and more movies are crossing the billion-dollar mark and newer movies are breaking into the top 20 all-time list. As previously mentioned, The Dark Knight Rises was once well-placed in the top 10 all-time list, and now it's no longer in the top 20, thanks to recent releases such as Beauty and the Beast, The Fate of the Furious, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and of course, Black Panther all earning way more than $1 billion globally.

This coming weekend marks Black Panther's first full month in theaters, and it's already one of the highest-grossing films ever to release - and its box office take is only going to go higher. At its current rate, the film should be able to overtake 2014's Transformers: Age of Extinction ($1.104 billion), 2012's Skyfall ($1.108 billion), and 2003's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($1.119 billion) by the end of its fifth weekend. And depending on how well it performs against Roar Uthaug's Tomb Raider this weekend, Black Panther could also surpass 2011's Transformers: Dark of the Moon ($1.123 billion) and 2016's Captain America: Civil War ($1.153 billion) within the next week.

Considering how successful Black Panther has been thus far, there's no telling exactly how high it will go. With increasing competition from other blockbuster films such as Tomb Raider, Pacific Rim Uprising, and Ready Player One, Black Panther may top out around $1.2 billion, but it could continue to push higher and higher until it reaches the top 10. To do that, Black Panther will need to top fellow Disney movie Frozen ($1.276 billion), but we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

More: Every Record Black Panther Has Broken

Source: Box Office Mojo

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