Gatsby77

Black Panther's now the most Tweeted-about movie of all time. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/black-panther-breaks-twitter-record-1095915

Makes sense to me. Because Goldfinger (# 45 on the all-time adjusted list) is generally considered the best Bond movie, so everyone would be eagerly anticipating the follow-up -- even if it ended up not being as great a film. See also - Matrix: Revolutions, which made 60%+ more than the original Matrix at the box office, despite being much inferior.

Yeah - I'm okay with it being 90% about numbers at this point because... This is a comic book message board. Who _hasn't_ seen it by now after more than a month in release? Discussion-wise, folks have moved on to speculation re. Infinity War. But for a movie that many predicted to do somewhere around Doctor Strange numbers to have outperformed so spectacularly (and continue to hold as well as it has) is both newsworthy and fascinating. Black Panther will out-perform The Last Jedi domestically -- something _nobody_ saw coming -- even those who hated The Last Jedi. And for a true superhero movie to become the first 5x # 1 movie since Avatar is something all of us should be celebrating.

Agreed. Quoting a price for a 9.8 Danger Girl Ruby Red as an example of "health" among moderns is disingenuous. First, it came out 20 years ago. Second, it's *always* been one of the most limited -- and expensive -- variants. It'd be like quoting a sale price on a slabbed Bloodshot 0 Platinum ($1,700 sale in CGC 9.4 last spring) to back up the assertion that "Valiants are hot." A better example? Maybe the first Batman New 52 run (2011). The first issue still sells for $50+ ungraded, despite being the top book of the month when released -- with nearly 200,000 orders.

Yes. All Pacific Rim will have to do is better than $20 million next weekend to dethrone Black Panther. Even Tomb Raider did $23 million this weekend. Still "Best # 1 streak since Avatar" isn't a bad title.

This. More than anything else, this makes me want to hire her agent. Because it takes mad skill to finalize and announce a deal like this for your client just five days after A Wrinkle In Time bombs. That's roughly equivalent to announcing Andrew Stanton was set to direct Guardians of the Galaxy five days after John Carter opened.

Granted, but my point means that every movie today faces far more competition just based on the sheer number of releases. Perfect example of this was the total domination of Beverly Hills Cop back in 1984-1985. Beverly Hills Cop topped out at just over 2,000 screens -- but was a ridiculous hit for other reasons -- including that fewer movies released per year = less competition. It debuted in early December, and went on to be the # 1 movie in America for 13 straight weekends. As in, it was # 1 at the U.S. box office from Dec. 7, 1984 through March 3, 1985. It was also Rated R. It only dropped out of the top 10 in mid-June, its 29th week of release. That would _never_ happen today -- incredibly more screens be damned. Why? Because there are far more movies being released than there were 30 years ago. Most films are lucky to stay in theaters for 13 weeks, let alone rank at # 1 for 13 weeks of a six month+ run. And yeah -- at just $616.5 million domestic in adjusted terms, Black Panther will likely beat Beverly Hills Cop at the box office -- selling more tickets. But even so, it's hard to argue that Black Panther is as dominant culturally or as much of a cinematic phenomenon in 2018 as Beverly Hills Cop was in 1984-85.

This is a good chart, but the growth in screens from ~23,000 in 1989 to ~40,000 in 2018 is more than balanced out by the increase in the number of movies released annually. Just ~250 per year in 1989 vs. 700+ now. That increase in both movie studios and new film releases should make a single film's domination that much harder -- even if we ignore increased competition from streaming channels that mean folks go out to the movies less.

At $578 million domestic as of yesterday, Black Panther has now passed Batman (1989) on the inflation-adjusted list. (Batman made $251 million total domestically 29 years ago). That was my marker, since 1989 was the summer of Batman, and instrumental in getting me --and many others -- into comics. Wow.

Hmm...not sure Black Panther will win out this weekend over Tomb Raider, but as of Tuesday Black Panther is pacing just $6 million behind The Last Jedi at the same point. Will likely pull ahead of The Last Jedi by Monday.

To what you say - I've seen far less quality material available this past year -- not just via eBay but via Comiclink and Heritage as well (mostly due to the lack of new pedigrees -- the Don/Maggie Simpson collection was the last new one I can recall that alligned with my collecting goals). But I really don't believe the market could absorb it if all the books listed on eBay went to true auction: Why? The stats from eBay this evening: CGC Bronze Age: 1,713 total comics at auction vs. 26,712 Buy-It-Nows. CGC Silver Age: 1,116 total comics at auction vs. 18,301 Buy-It-Nows. CGC Copper Age: 1,227 total comics at auction vs. 12,811 Buy-It-Nows. Sure - folks may be pricing at next year's prices, but it still makes for a stagnant, illiquid market in the meantime when one of the biggest platforms for comics out there is nearly 95% off limits (i.e., artifically overpriced from market-clearing rates).

1) The former. He wanted the power without any competition. Even knowing that burning the garden meant the power wouldn't be accessbile to his successors. 2) I'd say both -- but a bit more the former than the later (say...60/40).

Fair. But if anything I'd argue success in this day & age is even _more_ impressive, given media fragmentation. Not only are there _far_ more major movies today than 25+ years ago (with a major blockbuster ~every two weeks) but also huge competition from Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc. streaming services that means many more folks don't go out to the movies, period, compared to a generation ago. In 1989 Batman was the runaway hit of the year, booking more than 25% more than the # 2 movie (Last Crusade). In 2018, Black Panther may not even finish in the top 3 releases of the year.

Much as I'd love to see that, I think its velocity will greatly decrease after this weekend. Between now and April 1, we've got Tomb Raider, Pacific Rim 2 and Ready Player One. Even if each of them flops -- or at least underperforms -- $620MM+ is still not assured.

Can't speak for Paperheart, but yes -- this is why I noted that Black Panther has now passed Rogue One even when accounting for inflation. Big difference. That said, it will soon pass Batman (1989) on the inflation-adjusted scale -- which is incredible.

It's now sold more tickets in North America than Rogue One. Pacing $10.5 million behind The Last Jedi, tho...

Not for nothing, but Charles Bronson was 52 when he starred in Death Wish. And 60 when he starred in Death Wish 2 (of 5).

Yeah - and it should cross $550 million domestic by Monday. Of the six films that have booked $500 million domestic in less than 30 days, none ultimately made less than $615 million domestic. Black Panther booked $500 million in just 17 days.

I argued pages ago that Black Panther could/would outdo Infinity War in the U.S. Here's why -- sequels generally don't do better than the orginals from which they've spawned. We've seen that with all three of the Star Wars trilogies -- each Chapter 2 did ~70% of Chapter 1. And Age of Ultron did 73% of The Avengers. Not saying that Infinity War won't outdo Age of Ultron -- but it's far more likely that Infinity War will finish between Age of Ultron's $540M U.S. and The Avengers' $623M U.S. than it is to finish above $623M. Black Panther, however, is on track to finish above $600M and *may* finish close to/above $624M. And yeah -- as someone recently noted, BP's _in_ Infinity War, but it's not like WW's appearance in Justice League helped that film...

Due respect, but... Whut? The *whole* reason the film has inspired dozens of think pieces in publications like The New York Times, The Atlantic, etc. is that this was the first superhero film where this was overtly *not* the case. Better minds than I have noted how sure...we've seen black superheroes in movies before (Notably Blade and Hancock). But in those films the hero was incidentally black -- as you said, they could have been white with little difference. Not so with Black Panther -- where a large swath of it was overtly about both African culture and finding your place in the world after you grow up as a poor minority in Oakland.

The Black Panther soundtrack slipped to # 2 on the Billboard Top 200 chart this week after spending the prior two weeks at # 1. I think it goes to the film's broader cultural significance. When's the last time a comic book movie soundtrack hit # 1 on the billboard charts at least twice in a row? The only contenders that come to my mind are: Batman (1989) - by Prince (# 1 for six weeks) D**k Tracy (1990) - by Madonna (I'm Breathless) -- topped out at # 2.

1) Black Panther had already reached an audience much broader than comic fans due to Ta-Nehisi Coates signing on to write the comic two years ago. That was a _big_ deal, sort of equivalent to if Cornel West had written a solo Luke Cage comic in the late '90s. And Coates' run launched introduced the character to a huge audience that didn't normally read comic books. 2) As noted, Snipes campaigned to do Black Panther back in the mid-90s, before he even did the first Blade film. He tried to get it made for 2+ years. It was set up at Columbia with Snipes set to star and a screenwriter approved. See details on that here, as well as quotes from Tom DeFalco about it.

Due respect, but if Black Panther is as weak and half-baked as you claim, to what (honestly) do you attribute its near-universal critical and commercial acclaim? I get that political correctness and the willingness to touch identity politics at all could carry the film to a blockbuster $200 million weekend. But it wouldn't continue to succeed if that were it. As was stated last night at the Oscars, it's *already* grossed more in the U.S. than all nine of this year's Best Picture nominees combined. $500 million dollars domestic in 17 days and a 97% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes is unprecedented. Occam's Razor (and common sense) would dictate that there's something else going on here. That (gasp!) it might actually be _that good._ Or -- even if not -- that it's resonated with moviegoers in the U.S. in a very special way. Is it perfect? Hell no. But it is a _really_ good film with a surprisingly nuanced villain. That it's *also* proven to have far more cultural significance about race and identity politics than even last year's twin critical & commercial genre darlings Get Out and Wonder Woman is just a bonus.

Don't get me wrong -- I really like the 2004 Punisher movie, and would have loved to see Jane continue in the role. I think it got a bad rap upon release because Denzel's Man on Fire remake debuted a week later and was a far better film, as well as essentially a far better depiction of the Punisher. But technically, the MCU (as in, connected universe) starts in 2008 with Iron Man. Prior films don't count, even if they should. But Punisher War Zone is definitively a Marvel Studios production -- even if it was co-produced (a la The Incredible Hulk) with another studio. The producers are even on record saying the only reason they didn't have Stan Lee cameo was it was the first major Marvel hero film where he had nothing to do with the character.