Black Panther Becomes Highest-Grossing Superhero Movie Ever, Also Passes Star Wars

Marvel's newest superhero movie, Black Panther, continues to set records. The film has now pulled in $631 million in the United States, making it the highest-grossing superhero movie in history in the US (not adjusted for inflation). The Ryan Coogler-directed film made a further $17 million in its sixth weekend, pushing past The Avengers ($623 million in 2012) to become the highest-grossing superhero movie ever domestically.

As Variety points out, Black Panther is also now ahead of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which made $619 million in the US in 2017. Not adjusted for inflation, Black Panther is now the fifth highest-grossing movie in US history, only behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($936.6 million), Avatar ($760.5 million), Titanic ($659.3 million), and Jurassic World ($652.2 million).

Black Panther has made $606.4 million from international markets, pushing its global haul to $1.2 billion since its release in February. The film needed only 26 days to make $1 billion.

In the US, this past weekend was the first since Black Panther was released that it was not the No. 1 film. It was dethroned by Pacific Rim: Uprising, which opened to $28 million in the US, according to box office figures posted by EW.

Chadwick Boseman stars as Black Panther AKA T'Challa, the savior of Wakanda. Michael B. Jordan also stars as the villain Killmonger, with Lupita Nyong'o, Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, and Andy Serkis also appearing. The film was generally adored by critics, while movie earned an A-Plus CinemaScore, which means audiences liked it as well.

GameSpot's Michael Rougeau said in his review, "Black Panther is a cultural event that's going to be hard for Marvel to top, no matter how many worlds Thanos conquers later this year in Infinity War."