Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Tracking For Big Opening

Written by Edwin Francisco

Director Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is up to a good start with its projected opening weekend. Estimated numbers potentially place the Black Panther sequel at the second highest opening weekend for 2022.

Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther sequel has a lot to live up to. The film itself will acknowledge the death of T’Challa, which the late Chadwick Boseman played back in the first film. Other than that, it also introduces a new Black Panther and a new major player in the MCU, Namor.

Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Tracking For Big Opening

Ryan Coogler's Black Panther Wakanda Forever Tracking For Big Opening

Image: Marvel Studios

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will also try to prove itself in ticket sales. It’s not an easy feat to accomplish, especially as the world is slowly recovering from the pandemic. Marvel Studios released the first Black Panther movie on February 16, 2018, which had an opening weekend of $202 million. In that same year Avengers: Infinity War premiered too and had $257.6 at its opening weekend.

The pandemic did hurt all of the films they planned for release since the worldwide lock down happened in 2020. But 2022 has proven that the numbers are getting better. Spider-Man: No Way Home, which they released in December 2021, has proven that the ticket sales are moving up indeed. The third MCU Spider-Man film was so impressive that it is now the second most successful MCU film after Avengers: Endgame.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ticket sales started on October 3, 2022. Because of this, analysts forecast the film’s opening weekend on November 11 to be at $175 million. It’s an outstanding opening. The highest opening weekend this year was also an MCU film, namely Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which got $187.4 million.

Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Tracking For Big Opening

Ryan Coogler, Black Panther, Wakanda Forever, Tracking, Big, Opening

Image: Marvel Studios

This puts Wakanda Forever potentially at a very close second biggest opening weekend box-office record. The number is still low compared to Ryan Coogler’s original film, but it’s spectacular, nonetheless. It just shows that the movie industry itself is recovering.

Even with the promising numbers of the film’s opening weekend, Wakanda Forever will still have to prove to its fans that it is worth watching. So far, the MCU films this year had some good box office results. This includes even Thor: Love and Thunder, which polarized critics. But will it compete with the highest box-office film of the year, Top Gun: Maverick?