Early Weekend Estimates: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Scores $84M Domestic First Day, Paces for $175-180M+ Frame; Climbs to $149M Globally through Friday

Saturday Morning: Disney reports Black Panther: Wakanda Forever earned $84 million for its full opening day domestically, including Thursday previews ($28 million) and the true Friday gross.

That bests a 13-year-old record held by 2009’s The Twilight Saga: New Moon for the best “first day” gross by any November release in history. New Moon held the previous standard at $72.7 million, followed by its 2011 and 2012 Breaking Dawn follow-ups ($71.6 million for Part 1 and $71.2 million for Part 2) and 2013’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire ($70.95 million).

The latter remains notable on another front as Wakanda Forever is chasing that film’s all-time November record of $158.1 million for opening weekend, which it looks to easily surpass. Disney now expects an opening weekend between $174 million and $184 million in North America, which would align with final forecasts and prior tracking.

As recent Marvel comparisons go, Wakanda came in 20.8 percent ahead of Thor: Love and Thunder‘s $69.55 million opening day (which included $29 million previews) and 7.4 percent behind Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($90.7 million, including $36 million previews) for the second largest opening day of 2022 and the third best of the pandemic recovery era (Spider-Man: No Way Home holds that benchmark with $121.96 million last December).

The first Black Panther opened to a $76 million opening day in February 2018. Wakanda Forever‘s mark is the tenth best first day in history, passing Jurassic World‘s $82 million.

Following a very positive 84 critics’ score, early moviegoer reactions are strong with a resounding 95 percent audience score as of Saturday morning. Reception should carry the film to a healthy internal weekend and long play multiplier in the weeks ahead as the holiday season begins.

Internationally, Disney reports the sequel opened in another seven markets on Friday and has now amassed $64.7 million outside North America. The global total through Friday is $148.7 million.

Major Friday openers overseas included the Spain, the U.K., and Japan. Key territory grosses include:

Updated weekend estimates from studios will be reported later in the weekend.