Monday Update:

Disney’s Black Panther spent its fourth weekend at #1 with $40.8 million, a very rare feat accomplished by only one other film in the past two years: Jumanji, which did so just last month.

In fact, it may even be possible given current projections that Panther could reach five weekends at #1 next frame, which would make it the first film to do so since 2009’s Avatar. (And the last film to do so before that was 1999’s The Sixth Sense.)

In the process, Panther reached $1 billion globally this weekend — an outcome few would have predicted far out from its release.

Disney’s family fantasy A Wrinkle in Time debuted in second place with $33.1 million, about in line with other similar films such as Tomorrowland and The Maze Runner.

Sony’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle just barely took 10th place, coming less than $20 thousand ahead of the 11th place film. In the process, Jumanji spent its 12th weekend at #1, becoming the first film to do so since 2016’s La La Land. It’s also only the fifth film in the last five years to achieve the feat, along with La La Land, Zootopia, Frozen, and Silver Linings Playbook.

Total box office this weekend was $138.7 million. That’s 6.7 percent behind last weekend, and 15.4 percent behind the same weekend last year when Kong: Skull Island led with $61.0 million.

Total year-to-date box office stands at $2.30 billion. That’s +8.2 percent above the same stat at this point last year, although that figure is down from the +12.0 percent where it stood after last frame.

Our full table of box office weekend actuals is below, after our Sunday updating featuring fuller analysis.

Sunday Update:

The MCU’s returning champ continues to roar.

Though it dropped to second place on Friday (the first time it’s fallen out of the top slot in its entire run), Disney-Marvel’s Black Panther bounced back to became the first movie since Star Wars: The Force Awakens to enjoy four consecutive weekends at No. 1, beating out newcomer A Wrinkle in Time (another Disney release) over the long haul.

Dropping a mere 38 percent with $41.1 million in its fourth weekend of play, the total for the superhero blockbuster now stands at a jaw-dropping $562 million in 22 days, surpassing both Rogue One: A Star Wars Story ($532.2 million) and The Dark Knight ($534.9 million) for seventh all-time domestically. At this pace, the film will easily outgross Marvel’s The Avengers – the top-grossing MCU release for over five years running with $623 million – by the time it leaves theaters.

In second place, Disney’s tyke-skewing adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time came in at the lower end of expectations with $33.3 million in its opening frame, about on par with the studio’s 2015 flop Tomorrowland (though that film had a reported price tag of $190 million, far higher than Wrinkle‘s). Reviews skewed negative for the Ava DuVernay-directed title, which likely put something of a damper on its business. The overall Cinemascore for the family fantasy was a “B,” though it fared better with the under-25 set, who gave it an “A-“.

Based on the classic novel by Madeleine L’Engle, Wrinkle was heavily hyped by Disney, but negative buzz likely hurt its chances of hitting the higher end of estimates. At a reported cost of $103 million, it will need to hold up exceptionally well in the coming weeks to top out north of $100 million Stateside. On the plus side, with Jumanji slowly fading and Peter Rabbit on the downside of its box office trajectory, family competition isn’t too stiff over the next couple of weeks, so it could benefit from the lack of similar product in the marketplace.

Horror sequel Strangers: Prey at Night opened in third with $10.4 million, which is about half of what the first film opened to way back in 2008. Released by upstart distributor Aviron (the company behind last year’s Halle Berry thriller Kidnap), the film received mixed-to-negative reviews and a low “C” Cinemascore. Its distance from the original film’s release may have put a damper on its prospects, but with a reported budget of just $5 million, it seems destined for profitability despite a steep commercial fall from its predecessor. Luckily there are no other horror films currently in wide release, giving it a wider berth with its intended demo.

Believe it or not, the weekend saw three other major wide-to-semi-wide releases. First up is Entertainment Studios’ The Hurricane Heist, which flew way under the radar with an estimated $3.1 million this weekend in ninth place. The reported $35 million action-heist film, which wasn’t screened in advance for critics, was always going to be a difficult sell in a weekend crowded with the likes of Black Panther and A Wrinkle in Time.

Debuting outside the Top 10 was Amazon and STX’s Gringo, which brought in an estimated $2.6 million in eleventh place despite boasting such above-the-title stars as David Oyelowo and Charlize Theron. The marijuana comedy simply wasn’t able to break through in a weekend crowded with heavily-hyped movies, and mixed-to-negative reviews and poor audience word-of-mouth certainly didn’t help matters. The film was fully financed by Amazon Studios, with STX serving as distributor.

Among holdovers, Fox’s Red Sparrow dipped 52 percent to $8.1 million in fourth place, giving it an underwhelming total of $31.1 million in ten days. The spy actioner needed to hold better than this after a mediocre $16.8 million debut last weekend, but it looks destined to fade quickly from theaters despite boasting megastar Jennifer Lawrence in the lead role. 

Fifth place went to Warner Bros.’ Game Night, which grossed $7.9 million in its third weekend of release, a drop of just 24 percent. Though it had a rather mild debut, the Rachel McAdams and Jason Bateman comedy has been holding spectacularly well in the weeks since, indicating strong word-of-mouth. Its grand total now stands at around $45 million.

Sony’s animated/live-action hybrid Peter Rabbit eased just 32 percent in its fifth weekend to $6.8 million, giving it a sturdy total of $93.4 million in sixth place. Seventh went to MGM’s Death Wish, which dipped 49 percent to an estimated $6.6 million in its sophomore frame and a $23.8 million total.

Paramount’s Annihilation finished in eighth with an estimated $3.1 million for a $26 million cume, while Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle grossed an estimated $2. 7 million in tenth place. That marks its 12th weekend in the Top 10, the first time a movie has done that since La La Land. The Sony release, which has never dropped more than 40% weekend-to-weekend, now stands at $397.2 million domestically.

Limited Release:

Focus Features debuted its morbid thriller Thoroughbreds this weekend in 549 locations and banked an estimated $1.2 million, good for a so-so per-theater average of $2,228. The film received strong reviews, but with its pitch-dark tone it proved a difficult sell to audiences, despite being marketed as the next Heathers.

IFC’s scathing political comedy The Death of Stalin was the big limited-release story this weekend, grossing an estimated $181,308 in just four theaters. That’s a per-theater average of $45,327, by far the best on the chart. The Armando Iannucci-directed film was almost universally praised, and the critical hype pushed it over the top in New York and Los Angeles. Look for this one to expand wider in the coming weeks.

Overseas Update: 

Disney-Marvel’s Black Panther hit the $1 billion mark globally this weekend after a solid debut in China, where it brought in an estimated $66. 5 million (the fourth-highest opening weekend for an MCU film in the country). Overall, it brought in another $100 million in international territories and has now grossed an estimated $1.078 billion worldwide. That makes it the fifth MCU title to cross a billion dollars globally after The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Captain America: Civil War.

Weekend Actuals (Domestic)

FRI, MAR. 9 – SUN, MAR. 11

Studio Weekend Estimates (Domestic)

FRI, MAR. 9 – SUN, MAR. 11