In a Hollywood move that will shock absolutely no one, Marvel Studios has announced that the billion-dollar blockbuster Black Panther will get a sequel.
Well, duh!
If Hollywood can make about 15 Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street movies — most of which were absolutely horrible but still made enough money to justify creating additional versions of the films — then of course they would do a follow up to a film that will probably gross over a billion dollars worldwide after the March 9-11 weekend.
Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige made it official when he was interviewed by “Entertainment Weekly.” Black Panther has become a cultural phenomenon that has shattered box office records and sits atop the list for a fourth consecutive week and, thus, will get a second film.
But that’s as far as Feige will go as far as divulging any information.
“Nothing specific to reveal, other than to say we absolutely will do that,” Feige told EW. “One of the favorite pastimes at Marvel Studios is sitting around on a Part One and talking and dreaming about what we would do in a Part Two. There have been plenty of those conversations as we were putting together the first Black Panther. We have ideas and a pretty solid direction on where we want to head with the second one.”
No word yet on a potential release date, Feige said.
Black Panther disciples have calculated it would likely arrive in 2022, after a bunch of other Marvel films scheduled to premiere in the next four years.
This bit of news comes as Black Panther has remarkably entered the Top 10 highest grossing films of all time, Box Office Mojo reports on Friday, Mar. 9 (And this total is for movies overall, not just Marvel or comic book-featured films).
With $506M earned so far domestically, Ryan Coogler‘s film has landed in ninth place on the all-time list, and it also earns the title of the biggest domestic money maker from a Black director.
Also, amid fears of a Black-featured film playing well in the notoriously fickle movie audience in China, the Disney-Marvel Comic Universe film had grossed $9.87M, according to the China Box Office. That climbed to $18M by 7 p.m. At that point, Black Panther accounted for 57 percent of Friday’s gross revenues, ahead of big-budget patriotic documentary Amazing China, which came in second place with 19 percent.
The early numbers reinforce predictions that Black Panther could enjoy a $60M opening weekend in China and go on to exceed $100M.
