Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is aiming for a fourth weekend at the top of the box office, but with muted numbers. Avatar: The Way of Water can now take off on December 16 with the runway being cleared. Wakanda Forever is targeting a weekend gross of $15 million after earning $4.4 million on its fourth Friday.
This will bring the domestic running total of the Marvel superhero sequel to slightly over $390 million. The Way of Water, which opens in less than a week, will easily surpass the $400 million domestic mark before the movie. At this very moment, the movie has earned $700 million worldwide.
Wakanda Forever has a high bar for success as the follow-up to director Ryan Coogler’s hugely successful 2018 movie. The first movie brought in $700 million in the United States alone, and it ended up grossing an amazing $1.3 billion worldwide. As long as Wakanda Forever does better than the other two MCU movies released in 2022, Thor: Love and Thunder ($760 million) and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($955 million), Wakanda Forever should be safe.
Before its second weekend in theatres, THR reports that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has made $400.4 million in box office revenue. The previous superhero film for the post-summer season, DC’s Dwayne Johnson movie Black Adam, has already topped the film’s total. Black Adam had a record-breaking opening weekend on October 21 before drastically declining after that. The most successful November launch weekend in history was achieved by Wakanda Forever, which makes it an especially tough competitor.