Black Panther Overtakes Titanic as 3rd Biggest Movie at U.S. Box Office

Marvel's Black Panther has now broken another box office record, becoming the third highest grossing movie of all time in North America, beating James Cameron's Titanic. Black Panther has now officially made $665.4 million domestically and is only behind The Force Awakensand Avatar, with the latter being another Cameron film. Marvel now has the highest grossing superhero movie of all time with the Ryan Coogler-directed movie, which has become a global and cultural phenomenon since its release back in February.

Black Panther has made nearly $1.3 billion at the global box office and shows no signs of stopping at this time. Originally released in 1997, Titanicearned $600.8 million throughout its initial theatrical run, adding $57.9 million for its 3D re-release in 2012 and nearly a million dollars last year for its 20th anniversary release. As far as a worldwide scale, James Cameron's Titanic still has the upper hand at $2.2 billion after all of the re-releases and anniversary theatrical runs. The movie famously won the Academy Award for best picture in 1998 and is considered by many to be one of the greatest movies of all time.

Not only is Black Panther the highest grossing superhero movie of all time, but it's also the highest rated on Rotten Tomatoes with a score that fluctuates between a 97 and 98 percent. Before the pre-sale tickets of Infinity War, Black Panther had the highest amount of pre-sale tickets sold through Fandango as well. The Chadwick Boseman-starring movie also now holds the record for the highest grossing movie ever released in February, beating out the previous record holder, Deadpool, which came out in February of 2016 and became a surprise hit at the box office.

Obviously, when a movie does as well as Black Panther has, talks of a sequel begin to spread. However, talks of Black Panther 2 started while the first movie was still in production. Marvel realized early on that the cast and director Ryan Coogler had something special. It has not been officially confirmed that Coogler will direct the sequel, but Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige has already expressed his desire for the director to return, which will more than likely see a huge pay raise from working on the first Black Panther movie.

As for the cast of Black Panther, most of the main players are returningfor Marvel's Infinity War at the end of the month. The latest TV spot for Infinity War puts much of the focus on Wakanda and its people, featuring a chant along with some humor from the once hidden nation. For now, Black Panther has sunken James Cameron's Titanic at the domestic box office, becoming the third highest grossing movie in North American box office history, a feat that should be celebrated by everybody involved in the project. You can check out the rest of the box office domestic records over at Box Office Mojo.

Article by Kevin Burwick