Black Panther breaks US box office records

[ntscuser]

Ryan Coogler's movie had the fifth-biggest opening weekend ever

Ryan Coogler's Black Panther has smashed the US box office with $192 million in its opening weekend.

The Marvel superhero movie had the fifth-biggest opening weekend ever, beaten only by Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Jurassic World and The Avengers.

It's also the highest-grossing February opening weekend, and ranks among the top 15 global debuts ever.

According to comScore, 37% of moviegoers were African American.

It holds a 97% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and has been a hit in the UK, with day one takings of £2.6 million (about $3.7m) – beating both Thor: Ragnarok and the Benedict Cumberbatch-led Doctor Strange in terms of first-day money.

Meanwhile, Black Panther's Michael B Jordan secretly sneaked into public screenings on opening night to find out what real audiences made of his turn as Erik 'Killmonger' Stevens.

"Honestly, everybody was laughing, they were yelling at the screen, you know what I'm saying?" he said.

"The gasps, the one-liners, everything was working so it was cool to see it with a normal audience – not at a premiere, not at a press junket.

"They were really engaged and interacting with the film, so it was good to see."

As well as Jordan, Black Panther stars include Chadwick Boseman, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Andy Serkis, Winston Duke, Angela Bassett and Forest Whitaker.

Black Panther is out in cinemas now.