Black Panther delivered on the hype at the box office.
The high-profile black superhero movie starring Chadwick Boseman bypassed early expectations, raking in $192 million in ticket sales for the weekend, according to studio estimates and comScore. Including Monday's Presidents' Day holiday, the film is expected to earn $218 million for the four-day weekend and $361 million worldwide.
Black Panther had fifth-biggest opening weekend ever, not accounting for inflation.
The film set a new record for a February opening, besting Deadpool, which started with $132.4 million and $152.2 million for the same three- and four-day weekend in 2016.
It’s Marvel’s second-best North American opening, comScore says, behind only The Avengers in 2012 ($207.4 million).
The Ryan Coogler movie has earned terrific reviews, receiving a 97% fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes and an A-plus from audiences on CinemaScore.
Anticipation was huge for the comic-book adaptation, which is the first Marvel film to star a predominantly black cast (including Boseman as T'Challa/Black Panther, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Daniel Kaluuya and Letitia Wright) and be helmed by black filmmakers.
“I wouldn’t underestimate Black Panther in any way,” Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore, told USA TODAY before the movie opened. "The more important currency to this movie — as was with Wonder Woman — is not the dollars and cents, although that will be substantial, but the impact on the zeitgeist.”
The film attracted a diverse audience: comScore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak audience survey found that moviegoers were 37% African-American, 35% Caucasian, 18% Hispanic, 5% Asian and 5% other ethnicities.
Peter Rabbit, the live-action adaptation of Beatrix Potter's books starring James Corden as Peter and Domhnall Gleeson as Mr. McGregor, finished a distant second with $17.3 million in its second weekend. Fifty Shades Freed, the final film in the sex saga with Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson, slid to third with $16.9 million.
Rounding out the top five: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, which added another $7.9 million for an astonishing $377.6 million in nine weeks, and Clint Eastwood's The 15:17 to Paris, starring the real-life heroes who thwarted the 2015 terrorist attack, with $7.7 million for fifth place.
Among the weekend's other new releases, prehistoric family film Early Man took in $3.2 million. The animated film features the voices of Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston and Maisie Williams.
The biblical epic Samson, with Taylor James in the title role, earned $1.97 million.
Final figures are expected Tuesday.
Contributing: Brian Truitt and The Associated Press
