Marvel Studios’ “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” did its job in providing box office relief for movie theaters in desperate need of a blockbuster, but the film’s success wasn’t able to salvage a fall box office that was worse than what a COVID-addled industry was able to produce last year, when many theaters still hadn’t reopened or faced pandemic-era restrictions.
According to data from Box Office Mojo, the combined domestic box office total from Sept. 1 to Nov. 30, 2022 came out to $1.41 billion, a drop of approximately $100 million from the same period last year when audiences were still slowly returning to reopening theaters and the biggest blockbusters were being graded on a pandemic curve.