with under two months until black panther hits theaters, the first long-range box office forecast has hit and the highly anticipated film looks set to out-perform justice league's weekend opening with a $100 million-plus debut possible.
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when it comes to tracking, it's hard to know how well a film will do until about thirty days out. however, a new report from box office pro suggests marvel studios' black panther could open to over $100 million come february. to date, all seventeen of marvel's films have opened in first place, and the ryan coogler-directed feature is expected to continue that streak following the character's successful introduction in captain america: civil war. with the film set to open over president's day weekend, it'll allow more families to head to the theaters, possibly encouraging a higher sunday and helping to launch the film well over $100 million domestically. also working in the film's favor is that there's really no competition for the feature until march, when disney's a wrinkle in time finally opens.
actual estimates should become available around mid-january, as we near closer to the film's release, however, at this point the fact that black panther may open ahead of justice league isn't entirely surprising. buzz surrounding the chadwick boseman-led film has been high since the first trailer debuted earlier this year. the same cannot be said for dc's justice league, which saw meddled reactions leading up to its release. as to whether black panther beats justice league's final domestic numbers, however, remains to be seen. as it stands, justice league looks set to finish well under $300 million domestically while box office pro suggests black panther could finish its domestic run around $275 million. of course, as shown with thor: ragnarok, things could change significantly and the marvel film could very well over-perform come february and easily top $300 million stateside when all is said and done.
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directed by ryan coogler from a script he wrote with joe robert cole, black panther stars chadwick boseman as t’challa, michael b. jordan as erik killmonger, lupita nyong’o as nakia, daniel kaluuya as w’kabi, letitia wright as shuri, danai gurira as okoye, angela bassett as ramonda, martin freeman as everett k. ross, andy serkis as ulysses klaue, and forest whitaker as zuri. the marvel studios film arrives in theaters feb. 16, 2018.