scottmccute:

 The Marvel tentpole defied earlier estimates and beat out Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which earned $241.6 million in its debut last year. After yesterday, the film trails only The Force Awakens’massive $288 million four-day total.

The movie, directed by Ryan Coogler, is also the biggest February debut of all time, the second-highest grossing Marvel movie behind The Avengers, and the highest-grossing film by a black director in history.

According to Variety, the studio had originally projected a $218 million opening, but bumped that to $235 million Sunday morning. The film actually ended up performing even better than that, thanks to a Monday gross of $40.2 million, earning Black Panther the record for the biggest Monday box-office gross in history. Variety reports that the film’s global gross to date is at $426.6 million.

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