'Black Panther' Tops $600M Domestically While 'I Can Only Imagine' Surprises with $17M Debut

For the fifth weekend in a row, Disney and Marvel's Black Panther is the weekend's number one film at the domestic box office, becoming the first film to accomplish that feat since Avatar in 2009. The film is also only the seventh film to ever gross over $600 million at the domestic box office as it continues to dominate, now less than $18 million shy of topping The Avengers and becoming the highest grossing superhero movie of all-time.
As for the weekend's new releases, WB's Tomb Raider performed as expected, delivering a second place finish while the big surprise of the weekend was Roadside and Lionsgate's release of I Can Only Imagine. The faith-based feature delivered a third place finish, defying all expectations, and topped not only Disney's A Wrinkle in Time in its sophomore session, but Fox's freshman debut, Love, Simon.

With an estimated $27 million, Black Panther finished atop the weekend box office for the fifth straight weekend, pushing the film over $605 million domestically. As a result, Black Panther joins Avatar and The Sixth Sense as only the third film to top the weekend box office for five straight weekends in the last 19 years.
Alongside its domestic achievements, Black Panther added an estimated $30 million internationally this weekend, pushing its overseas cume to $577.1 million for a global tally topping $1.183 billion, passing Captain America: Civil War ($1.153B) and Minions ($1.159B) to become the fourteenth largest worldwide release of all-time.

In second is WB's adaptation of the popular video game Tomb Raider with an estimated $23.5 million. This makes it the sixth largest opening for a video game adaptation ever, a list still topped by the original Tomb Raider film starring Angelina Jolie, which debuted with $47.7 million back in 2001. The film received a so-so "B" CinemaScore from opening day audiences, which broke down 56% male vs. 44% female while 68% of the overall audience was over the age of 25.

Internationally, after debuting in nine markets last weekend, Tomb Raider expanded to 65 overseas territories this weekend, delivering an estimated $84.5 million for a international cume estimated at $102.5 million. Highlights include a $41.1 million opening in China, WB's seventh largest opening ever in the market, along with a $4.4 million opening in Russia, $4.2 million debut in the UK, $3.2 million opening in France and $2.1 million debuts in Germany, Mexico, Australia and Brazil. The film will open this week in Japan on Wednesday, March 21.
Landing in third is the surprise of the weekend, Roadside and Lionsgate's I Can Only Imagine, delivering an estimated $17 million from just 1,629 locations for an impressive $10,476 per theater average. This is the seventh largest opening for a faith-based feature of all-time (fourth if you don't count the Narnia films) and the best opening since 2014's Heaven is for Real, which opened with $22.4 million while playing in nearly 800 more theaters. The film received an "A+" CinemaScore from opening day audience, of which 67% were female and 80% were over the age of 35.

Looking ahead, it will be interesting to see how I Can Only Imagine performs over the coming weeks as Sony and its AFFIRM label will release Paul, Apostle of Christ next weekend and PureFlix will be releasing God's Not Dead: A Light in the Darkness the following weekend, all hoping to take advantage of the Easter holiday session.

Disney's A Wrinkle in Time dropped 50% in its second weekend for an estimated $16.56 million, landing in fourth position. The film's domestic cume now stands at $61 million. Internationally, Wrinkle debuted in France, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Trinidad this weekend, delivering an estimated $3.2 million from 11 markets for an overseas cume that now stands at $10.6 million and a global tally reaching $71.7 million. The film opens in the UK and Peru next weekend.

Rounding out the top five is Fox's Love, Simon, delivering an estimated $11.5 million from 2,402 locations. While this is a bit below Mojo's forecast, it falls right in line with the studio's expectations and given the "A+" CinemaScore from opening day audiences the film could be looking to play for quite some time. Love, Simonplayed to an audience that was 58% female and 41% were over the age of 25.

Just outside the top five, Warner Bros.'s and New Line's Game Night continues to hold strong from one weekend to the next, this weekend dipping just 29% for an estimated $5.57 million, pushing the film's domestic cume over $54 million. The R-rated comedy should continue to see solid numbers as it will remain the only such film in theaters until April 6 when Universal releases Blockers.

Landing in seventh is Sony's Peter Rabbit with an estimated $5.2 million, pushing the film's domestic cume to $102 million as it begins its sixth week in release. Internationally, Peter Rabbit grossed an estimated $15.5 million from 22 markets for an international cume of $42.7 million. The film's wider roll-out continues next weekend with openings in Australia, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Russia, and Spain followed by releases in France in early April and South Korea and Japan in mid-May.

Sony is also celebrating as Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle topped $400 million this weekend. The film is now just $3.4 million shy of Spider-Man and becoming the studio's highest grossing release of all-time. Only problem facing Jumanji topping that mark is that it is already available on digital and On Demand and will arrive on Blu-ray on Tuesday.

Just behind Jumanji is Focus's 7 Days in Entebbe, which debuted in 838 theaters with an estimated $1.6 million. The film played to an audience that was 59% female and 41% male.

Also of note, IFC's The Death of Stalin expanded into 32 locations (+28) this weekend and delivered an estimated $580,576, once again delivering a weekend-best per theater average of $18,143.

Among limited releases The Orchard's Flower opened in three theaters with an estimated $57,851 ($19,284 PTA); Good Deed's Journey's End brought in $12,700 from two theaters; and FilmBuff's Ramen Heads opened in two theaters with an estimated $7,014.

Next weekend Universal will debut Pacific Rim Uprising into ~3,700 theaters; Paramount will open Sherlock Gnomes into ~3,500 locations; Open Road is looking to release Midnight Sun in over 2,000 theaters; Sony will be looking for success with Paul, Apostle of Christ in ~1,400 locations; and Bleecker will be releasing Unsane is an as-yet undisclosed number of theaters.

You can check out all of this weekend's estimated results right here and we'll be updating our charts with weekend actuals on Monday afternoon.

Discuss this story with fellow Box Office Mojo fans on Facebook. On Twitter, follow us at @boxofficemojo.

by Brad Brevet
'Black Panther' Tops $600M Domestically While 'I Can Only Imagine' Surprises with $17M Debut

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