On its fourth Friday in theaters, “Black Panther” became the 33rd film in box office history to gross $1 billion worldwide, hitting the mark on its opening day in China.
The Ryan Coogler-directed film was pushed over the mark by an estimated $22 million opening day total in China, as well as $9.9 million grossed in its fourth Friday in the U.S. “Black Panther” hit the billion mark in 24 days, the same amount of time it took “Avengers: Age of Ultron” and “Captain America: Civil War” to reach it.
While those two films saw more than 60 percent of their total revenue come from overseas, the majority of revenue share for “Black Panther” has come from the U.S., where it will pass “The Dark Knight” this weekend to become the second-highest grossing superhero movie of all-time and the seventh-highest among all films. The film currently has a running domestic total of $521 million.
This milestone also means that Disney holds half of all billion-dollar-grossing films, with 16 releases passing the 10-digit mark. “Black Panther” is expected to pass three of those films — “Finding Dory,” “Zootopia” and the 2010 “Alice in Wonderland” remake — by the end of this weekend as it enters the top 30 highest grossing films of all-time.