Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is en route to become the second highest-grossing Marvel Cinematic Universe film of Phase 4. The film, which is a direct sequel to the 2018 film Black Panther, is the final theatrical outing for Phase 4, which spans from the Disney+ series WandaVision at the beginning of 2021 through the end of this year. Wakanda Forever follows the death of T'Challa, honoring the passing of performer Chadwick Boseman, as the leaders of Wakanda attempt to balance the nation newly stepping onto the global stage while new enemies surface from the depths of the sea, led by the mutant Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejía).

Per Deadline, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's box office run continues to hold strong. The film, which opened on November 11, has taken the number 1 slot at the box office this weekend for the fourth week in a row, earning about $16 million and bringing its cumulative domestic gross to $392 million by this Sunday. This continues its trend of pulling ahead of this year's highest-grossing MCU film, Sam Raimi's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, as that film had already slipped to number 2 with a cumulative gross of $374.7 million by its fourth weekend, even including the Memorial Day holiday.

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How is Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's Box Office Comparing to the Original?

Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa with his helmet off in Black Panther.

If Black Panther: Wakanda Forever officially pulls ahead of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' total of $411.3 million domestic, it will be on track to become the highest-grossing MCU film of 2022. That will also make it the second highest-grossing Phase 4 entry overall, behind the megahit Spider-Man: No Way Home, which opened in December 2021. That film, which teamed the Spider-Man heroes and villains from three different universes, earned $814 million in the U.S. and became the third-highest-grossing domestic film of all time, a bar that Wakanda Forever is unlikely to clear.

Although it is doing very well for a Phase 4 property, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever still has a way to go if it wants to compete with the original 2018 Black Panther. That film's titanic gross ended up earning $700 million domestically toward a worldwide total of $1.35 billion worldwide. While its worldwide gross was boosted by the fact that it opened in China, a territory that hasn't screened a Marvel film since 2019, Wakanda Forever is still falling somewhat short of the original's domestic total.

At this time in the run of the original Black Panther it had already earned $561.7 million, so Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has fallen substantially behind. Part of this can be accounted for by the unpredictable pandemic-era box office, but it nevertheless seems unlikely that the sequel will be able to surpass the original in any way, shape, or form. However, the film hasn't suffered critically, as it is Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with 84%, not considerably behind Black Panther's Rotten Tomatoes score, similarly certified at 96%.

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Source: Deadline

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