Black Panther continues to rake in big bucks globally, and it has now pushed the Marvel Cinematic Universe past the $14 billion mark at the worldwide box office. Marvel’s Black Panther - directed by Ryan Coogler and based on a script Coogler co-wrote with screenwriter Joe Robert Cole, as well as starring Chadwick Boseman as the eponymous superhero - is setting all sorts of records. Critically, it’s Rotten Tomatoes’ best film of all-time. Commercially, it’s something that no one could’ve expected from this film.

Last week, Black Panther scored the fifth highest-grossing opening ever, beating Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. In addition to raking in more than $200 million at the domestic box office in just a few days, Black Panther scored the highest-grossing Monday of all-time and then continued that streak by besting every other Marvel film by earning the biggest gross on each subsequent weekday. That puts it on track to cross the billion-dollar threshold relatively soon. But so far, Black Panther has earned enough money to send the MCU beyond the $14 billion mark with regard to total box office receipts.

On Thursday, Black Panther earned $14.3 million domestically, thus setting a new in-studio record for highest-grossing Thursday (beating The Avengers’ $12.4 million gross), in addition to pulling in $13.3 million from overseas markets. With that additional $27.6 million, Black Panther now stands at a whopping $520.1 million. That number was more than enough to send the MCU rocketing past $14 billion at the worldwide box office. In total, the MCU has currently grossed $14.031 billion since 2008’s Iron Man.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe started out strong with Iron Man - both critically and commercially - but all the other films weren’t as successful as Robert Downey Jr.’s films. It wasn’t until Whedon’s The Avengers in 2012 that the game changed for them. Thanks to being the first movie out of the gate post-Avengers, Shane Black’s Iron Man 3 nearly doubled Iron Man 2’s gross by hitting $1.214 billion globally. (Interestingly, Iron Man 3 is only the third solo superhero film ever to cross $1 billion; the other two being The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises.)

Overall, more and more people have been seeing Marvel’s films since The Avengers released, especially in China and other major international markets. But Black Panther is another beast entirely. The film already passed the $500 million mark in less than one week, which pretty much guarantees that it will become the fourth solo superhero film to make more than $1 billion. That’s not only a testament to its quality but also the types of films that audiences are interested in seeing. We’ll just have to wait and see how high the MCU goes with the release of Avengers: Infinity War this summer.

More: Every Record Black Panther Has Broken

Source: Box Office Mojo

  • Avengers: Infinity War Release Date: 2018-04-27 captain marvel Release Date: 2019-03-08 spider-man homecoming 2 Release Date: 2019-07-02 The Avengers 4 Release Date: 2019-04-26 Ant-Man 2 Release Date: 2018-07-06