Lupita and Leticia Michelle Wright in Black Panther
Ryan Coogler’s ‘Black Panther’ is still making history nearly two months after it first opened in theaters.
The latest accomplishment: The Disney and Marvel superhero tentpole passed up James Cameron’s ‘Titanic’ on Saturday (April 7) to rank as the third top-grossing title of all time at the North American box office behind ‘Star Wars’: ‘The Force Awakens’ ($936.7 million) and ‘Avatar’ ($760.5 million), not adjusted for inflation.
‘Black Panther’ finished Friday (April 6) with a domestic total of $659.3 million, just shy of the $659.5 million grossed by ‘Titanic’, which sailed into theaters in late 1997.
Globally, ‘Black Panther’ has grossed $1.29 billion, ranking as the No. 10 title of all time.
The film – unprecedented in being a big-budget studio tentpole featuring a virtually all-black cast – stars Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa/Black Panther alongside Lupita Nyong’o, Michael B. Jordan, Danai Gurira, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker and Andy Serkis.
The story, described as a tale of black power and black pride in addition to its superhero themes, follows T’Challa as he is sworn in as king of Wakanda, a cloaked, technologically advanced nation in Africa that is home to the exotic metal vibranium, the source of Black Panther’s powers.
-billboard.com