The end of the weekend has come and for the 5th time in a row, Black Panther finds itself atop the Box Office. Bringing in an estimated $27,024,000, it seems that the only thing that will stop Black Panther is time. As of now, Black Panther is only $18 million away from passing Avengers as the highest grossing domestic superhero film of all time. And based on what the film brought in this week, it should take Black Panther around two weeks to officially pass Avengers, which is crazy. Personally, I always thought the estimates for the film were way too low considering the film was going to bringing in a new audience that typically doesn’t watch superhero movies. I actually think Black Panther’s success leads to an even bigger question which is, will moviegoers that perhaps weren’t as excited about Infinity War, now go see that film, because of Black Panther. Could the king of Wakanda actually be the reason why Infinity War makes even more money than expected?

When it comes to Black Panther’s box office dominance though, eventually, the weekend will come when all of the people in the world will have seen Black Panther, and when that time comes, another film will finally dethrone the box office king. The question is, when will that time come. Who is that challenger? How many weeks will we have to wait before someone finally arrives and says, this is my box office kingdom… oh, it’s this coming week? Gotcha.

Before taking a look at all of the movies that are coming out this weekend, let’s see how everything did, compared to Black Panther. Rounding out the top 5 there’s Tomb Raider at number 2 with $23,525,000, then at number three is I Can Only Imagine bringing in a surprising $17,064,640, dropping 2 spots from last week is the  number 4 movie in the country A Wrinkle in Time with $16,565,000, and finishing off the top 5 is a movie I’m happy to see do well, Love, Simon with $11,500,000. 

The Biggest Story of The Box Office

Since I’ve already mentioned Black Panther and the incredible numbers it’s putting up, I’d actually like to focus on some of the more surprising moment from the box office this weekend and that’s Tomb Raider. While it is impressive that faith-based movie I Can Only Imagine came in third and that Love, Simon, a love story about a gay teen came in 5th, Tomb Raider only bringing in $23.5 Million is surprising. While I’ve seen tracking sites that projected this specific number, I’m just left confused at the lack of buzz and push from audiences for this movie. This is now the 2nd time this year, the first being Annihilation, that a film with a strong female lead or leads failed to bring in impressive numbers. And the question I’m left with is why? Annihilation is incredible and Tomb Raider, from everything I’m hearing, is a really fun action film, so why didn’t more people stand up for these movies? Clearly, I am not the person to write the piece discussing this topic, but I do wonder if the failings of something like Ghostbusters, a movie that had a lot of people rallying behind it, has resulted in audiences more hesitant to back certain types of films. This is a topic I’d be fascinated to see someone much more qualified than myself tackle, but then again maybe there’s nothing there to talk about. Maybe Black Panther was going to be too much for these films to overcome no matter what. Either way, I’m still surprised that even after all of the marketing push, Tomb Raider failed to make more. It is important to note that I’m speaking only of its domestic earnings. According to Box Office Mojo, Tomb Raider’s foreign market has brought in $102,500,000. Don’t worry about Laura and her tombs, they’re filled with gold, just not in the United States.

Looking Ahead

While I’m personally excited about Wes Anderson’s film Isle of Dogs, I can, with confidence, say that this will not be the film to take the number one spot away from Black Panther. Saying that though, it is important to mention that with the director’s last three films, each has made more than the last. While I don’t think Isle of Dogs will be a huge hit, I do think that it could reasonably bring in $10-$12 million opening weekend which would be more than The Grand Budapest Hotel’s biggest weekend of only $8 million. With all of that said though, the two films that will give Black Panther chase are Sherlock Gnomes and Pacific Rim Uprising. I don’t know a single person excited for Pacific Rim and I don’t have kids so I turn to the folks at Pro.BoxOffice.com to check out their box office projected numbers for both films. While they have Pacific Rim bringing in $25,000,00, they only have Sherlock Gnomes at an estimated $16,000,000. I know I said that Black Panther would lose his thrown this week, but based off of these low estimates if Pacific Rim manages to stumble, there is an insane scenario where Black Panther wins the box office again. Either way, this weekend looks to offer a lot for audiences to check out. Let me know in the comments what you plan on seeing.