Black Panther

Marvel’s Black Panther earned a whopping $75.8 million on its first day, including $25.2m in Thursday previews. That’s the fourth-biggest superhero opening day in history, behind The Avengers ($80m), Batman v Superman ($81m) and Avengers: Age of Ultron ($84m). It’s the second-biggest pre-summer launch behind Batman v Superman ($81m), the top single day gross for a solo superhero movie and the biggest single day for a movie not directed by a white male, the eighth-biggest opening day ever and the very biggest single day ever for a non-sequel movie.

(link)


We saw the film tonight in Redwood City with some folks from my extended family.  A few observations:

• They ran about 30 screenings of it today, looks like they'll run another 30 tomorrow.  
• When I bought our tickets at noon, the theater was empty (maybe they'd just put on another show), tonight the theater was full.
• No one left the theater during the show.  The audience applauded at the end.
• Disney had this budgeted as a single hero tentpole flick (about $200 mm, similar to Iron Man's $186 mm, but a bit above the $130-140 mm for the first Ant Man and Captain America films.  It looks like they could break even...this weekend.
• If this is really a $200 mm+ weekend, Black Panther will be right there with the biggest Marvel movies ever made, Avengers and Age of Ultron, both of which ultimately had revenues of $1.4-$1.5 bn.   

As for the movie, damn...!

The last time I saw a movie that so fully realized and immersed me in an utterly new an alien world was...a long time ago, in a galaxy far away. The visual imagination and special effects of Black Panther are wildly beyond the normal high standard of the modern superhero movie.

All this, and relevance too.  Black Panther raises - even more effectively than The Winter Soldier - questions about loyalty to leader or country (how do you choose), and how a nation can wield power responsibly in a world where many will not.  And it asks, quite reasonably, if you let the monsters grow outside your borders, how long until they come to your door?

Finally, Black Panther has a wonderful villain.  One of our party quite reasonably asked:  "hey...is that Nick Young?"

Killmonger (courtesy of The Ringer)

Swaggymonger

Just sayin'...