‘Wakanda Forever’ To Win Post Thanksgiving Frame, But ‘Violent Night’ Could Liven Up Box Office

A24’s release of Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale had a strong holdover its second weekend out, grossing $168.5k on the same six screens in NYC and LA where it opened its first frame to the biggest per theater average of the year – beating the distributor’s March release of Everything Everywhere All At Once.

The Black Reel Awards has revealed its nominations for their 23rd Annual ceremony.

And so it begins. Thirteen years after the first Avatar arrived in movie theaters, conquered and continued to conquer the global box office as the highest release of all-time with $2.9 billion worldwide, Avatar: The Way of Water, the sequel to the James Cameron directed 3x Oscar winning 3D sci-fi movie arrives with a global outlook of $525M in what is Disney’s widest global release ever at 52K screens, surpassing Avengers: Endgame.

**Spoilers below for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” You’ve been warned…** Though it’s unlikely Letitia Wright will get any major awards nominations for her performance in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” it isn’t for lack of quality and effort. The young actress clearly puts every bit of herself into her role as Shuri, the new Black Panther and protector of Wakanda.

On the final weekend before Avatar: The Way of Water dominates screens globally, Disney/Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever continued to lead the worldwide and international box office. The fifth session for the sequel added $11.8M in 50 overseas markets, lifting the offshore cume to $358M and global to $767.8M.

What happens when there’s no wide theatrical releases and it’s the holiday season as we emerge from the pandemic? Why, you get the second-lowest box office weekend of the year at an estimated $37.2M. We’ll see if Saturday night business is so bad that that this weekend becomes the lowest of 2022, unseating that of Jan. 28-30, when all movies grossed $34.87M, per Comscore.

**Spoilers ahead for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” You’ve been warned.** In a long, epic film about grief and loss, one of the most emotional moments in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” comes at the very end. In the mid-credits scene, it is revealed that T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) and Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) actually had a kid off-screen, and he’s been living with Nakia in Haiti, away from Wakanda and his place in the kingdom.

Hannah Beachler already has one Oscar thanks to her incredible world-building in Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther.” She may soon be in the running for a second after helping conceive the Mayan-influenced Talokan civilization in the follow-up, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” A process that involved countless hours of research and a year of prep work. READ MORE: ‘Wakanda Forever’: Ruth Carter on fashioning Namor’s undersea costumes and the new Black Panther armor [Interview] During our conversation, Beachler reveals just how much consideration went into imagining an underwater world influenced by classic Mayan architecture.

The holiday action comedy “Violent Night” feels like it was sold in one of those pitch meetings from “The Player,” two guys in a room with Griffin Mill, excitedly announcing their brainchild: “It’s ‘Die Hard’ meets ‘Bad Santa!’” They presumably lit cigars and slapped each other on the back after settling on that premise, which is too bad; they should’ve used that valuable time to spin their high-concept pitch into something with some jokes or funny situations.

In its third weekend, Disney/Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever continued to reign at the global and international box office. With a $32.1M offshore frame (-53%), the sequel has an overseas total of $308M for $675.6M worldwide through Sunday.

There’s a special place at cowriter/director Ryan Coogler’s table and in his heart for those who supported Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Call it a holiday tradition as common as sweet potatoes on the Thanksgiving table, but Disney is going to rule the five-day holiday stretch again after wins in 2016 (Moana), 2017 (Coco), 2018 (Ralph Breaks the Internet), 2019 (Frozen 2) and last year (Encanto), as Black Panther: Wakanda Forever‘s third weekend looks to do $40M over Wednesday-Sunday and Disney Animation’s Strange World hopes to squeeze out $30M+. All of this occurs as Bob Iger is re-installed as the CEO of Disney and the studio’s distribution czar Kareem Daniel exits.

Refresh for latest…: In its sophomore frame, Disney/Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever sent its worldwide cume well past the $500M mark, with an estimated $546.3M through Sunday.  The split is $288M domestic and $258.3M from the international box office.

EXCLUSIVE: Searchlight’s absurdist genre comedy The Menu got off to a promising start with $1M+ in Thursday night previews, we hear. That number is up there with recent comps such as Barbarian, which did $850K on its Thursday night before a $10.5M opening, and The Northman, another Anya Taylor-Joy movie, which posted $1.35M before a $12.2M start.

Strengthened by the worldwide release this past weekend of Disney/Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the Walt Disney Studios has crossed the $3B box office mark globally for the year so far.

A very vibrant runway leading into Thanksgiving for sure for movie theaters as Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is headed for a second weekend down around -60% for $70M-$72M. Through five days, the Ryan Coogler-directed Disney and Marvel Studios sequel has amassed $204.8M with Tuesday earning $12.4M, the third best Tuesday of November after Frozen 2 ($20.8M, Nov. 26, 2019) and Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire ($15.96M, Nov. 26, 2013).