The Marvel Cinematic Universe has another commercial hit. Director Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opened with an estimated $180 million in North America.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever‘s domestic box office haul is the second biggest opening weekend of 2022. Fellow MCU blockbuster Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness brought in $187 million in May.
In addition, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever broke the record for highest-grossing debut in November. 2013’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was the previous champion for the month with a $158 million start.
Wakanda Forever is the sequel to the Oscar-winning Black Panther which came out in 2018. The original movie made $700 million domestically and a worldwide total of $1.38 billion. Black Panther is currently the 14th highest-grossing movie of all time.
Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Dominique Thorne, Michaela Coel, Martin Freeman, and Angela Bassett star in Wakanda Forever. It is the first installment in the franchise without the late Chadwick Boseman who previously played the titular character.
“I couldn’t believe it. No one knew anything. And then you start thinking about [how] they were telling you it was four years [of battling cancer],” stated Angela Bassett about the loss of Boseman. “And we had just done [Black Panther] two years previous.”
Academy Award winner Ludwig Göransson produced the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – Music From and Inspired By soundtrack. Rihanna, Tems, Future, Burna Boy, Stormzy, and other international musicians contributed to the album.
“Ryan and I talked about the importance of creating an immersive journey of sound and voice,” said Göransson. “If we used a song in the film, we wanted it to be the entire song, and to be connected to the story.”
