'Too long but moving': Black Panther sequel smashes box office

The Marvel blockbuster trumps the November release record, earning the second biggest opening of 2022.

The MCU sequel crushes the November release record, earning the second biggest opening of 2022.

Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is a box office tour-de-force, taking in an astonishing USD $330M globally on its opening weekend. 

The original Black Panther steamrolled the box office upon its 2018 release, clearing USD $1.4 billion in global ticket sales, making it one of the highest-grossing films of all time, and earning more award nominations than any Marvel film before it (including a Best Picture nod at The Oscars). 

Angela Bassett as Ramonda in Marvel Studios' Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Clearly, there’s still a hunger for the mythic world of Wakanda: with the sequel’s debut bringing in USD $180 million during its North American opening over the weekend. Crushing the previous November release record of USD $158 million (set by 2013’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.)

Internationally, the Marvel film scored an additional USD $150 million. 

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever wakes a box office that’s been in a deep slumber since the pandemic. According to Comscore, cinema ticket sales in the United States and Canada are down 33% from the same period in 2019. 

The USD $330M weekend marks the third highest opening for any film in the pandemic era (all are Marvel films), and the 2nd biggest global opening of 2022 (behind Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness which opened at USD $450M).

Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff in Marvel Studios' Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Much of the intrigue surrounding Wakanda Forever has been about how the film would grapple with the death of its dynamite lead actor, Chadwick Boseman, who died in 2020 of colon cancer at 43. Instead of recasting Boseman’s character T’Challa, “the film accepts his death and integrates it as part of the narrative,” writes David Stratton in The Australian.

“Indeed, the film begins with T’Challa’s funeral. It’s a touching scene culminating with the elevation of the dead man’s coffin into a hovering aircraft above. 

“In the new film, the bereaved Wakandians have to come to terms with their leader’s death.”

The reviews, thus far, have been mixed to positive, with criticism leveled at the film's runtime (2h 41m) and muddied plotlines, and overwhelming praise for how Ryan Coogler handled the passing of Boseman. 

“The film is much too long,” writes David Stratton. “It drags seriously in the middle and it gets bogged down in its mysticism vs science themes. Nevertheless, fans of the MCU will doubtless embrace this at times moving sequel in a big way.”

In The Guardian, Wendy Ide writes that “While not everything works, the emotional core is raw, credible and affecting.” And New York Times’ A.O. Scott notes that the film has “too much plot” but praised Coogler, writing that the director “feeds his own and the public’s grief into the story, infusing the movie with somber notes of family loss and collective mourning.”

If you’re a Marvel fan, you’re sure to get what you need out of this film. If not, rejoice in the knowledge that it gave us the first new solo Rihanna music in six years.