‘Black Panther 2’ Could Have Biggest Opening Weekend of 2022

The only people who may be anticipating the debut of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever more than Marvel fans are Marvel accountants. The first sequel to one of the biggest superhero movies of all time is tracking for a gargantuan opening weekend that should make it one of the biggest films of 2022 as soon as it premieres in theaters.

According to box office tracking experts, the movie is expected to gross around $175 million in its opening weekend next month. If it exceeds those expectations a little, that could put it in the neighborhood of the biggest opening of 2022. The current holder of that title is another Marvel movie, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Still, even if Black Panther 2 does better than expected, it would have to defy predictions by a large magnitude to become the biggest opening for a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie — or even the biggest opening for a Black Panther movie. Here are the seven biggest opening for the MCU to date. Wakanda Forever would have to really outperform the experts’ guesses to sneak into this top five…

1. Avengers: Endgame – $357.1 million
2. Spider-Man: No Way Home – $260.1 million
3. Avengers: Infinity War – $257.6 million
4. The Avengers – $207.4 million
5. Black Panther – $202.0 million
6. Avengers: Age of Ultron – $191.2 million
7. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – 187.4 million

Here is the latest trailer for the film, which has been watched more than 28 million times on YouTube alone:

Wakanda Forever is attracting enormous interest, in part because of the death of the franchise’s original star, Chadwick Boseman, in the summer of 2020. Boseman’s tragic passing at the age of 43 after a battle with colon cancer, necessitated a complete rewriting of the original screenplay for the Black Panther sequel. So far, Marvel has yet to reveal which Marvel character inherits the mantle of Black Panther in the film.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is scheduled to open in theaters on November 11.