The Black Panther phenomenon continues to charge through the box office like a legion of weaponized rhinoceroses. Witness this little tidbit, dropped in a glowing THR report about the film’s $242 million domestic ($426.6 million international) Presidents’ Day haul—the second-biggest four-day total of all time after Star Wars: Episode VII—The Force Awakens, and the fifth-biggest opening of all time, period—saying that the film broke another record overnight:
Black Panther also scored the biggest Monday in history with $40.2 million, besting Force Awakens’ $40.1 million.
There’s not much more to say than that, except that if you’re involved in some kind of Vegas box-office betting pool, the smart money’s on it being No. 1 this weekend as well. (Sorry, Annihilation.) Same for the weekend after that. The weekend after that sees A Wrinkle In Time coming to challenge Black Panther’s box-office supremacy, but considering that they’re both Disney films, and directors Ryan Coogler and Ava DuVernay edited them across the hall from each other and gave each other advice on those films, that’s more of a friend coming to join the party than anything.