Black Panther Passes Titanic ’s Box Office Record

Marvel knew they had something big when Black Panther turned in the studio’s biggest opening week ever, trouncing the opening numbers of 2012’s The Avengers, which it then surpassed again a month later, becoming the highest-grossing superhero movie. While it hasn’t topped the box office in a few weeks, it’s remained in second or third place. The latest broken record: Black Panther has passed the once-unsinkable Titanic.

James Cameron’s Titanic held the top spot on the list for decades since its release in 1997, and was only replaced in recent years, first by Cameron’s other movie Avatar, which was then bumped to second place by Star Wars: The Force Awakens. As of this weekend, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Black Panther has overtaken Titanic’s $659 million total, the Marvel movie’s $665 million domestic total (at time of publication) bringing it into third place.

It’s going to take a lot for Black Panther to beat out Avatar, which, according to Box Office Mojo, has $760 million, just shy of $100 million more than its rival, and it doesn’t look like Black Panther could beat The Force Awakens’s nearly $937 million, though that depends on how long Marvel will keep it in theaters. It’ll also have competition from its home team as Avengers: Infinity War, the fourth massive team-up movie in Marvel’s franchise, is hitting theaters in just a few short weeks at the end of this month, and, as recent teasers suggest, boasts a major battle taking place in Black Panther’s kingdom of Wakanda.

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