First Movie Ever With Majority Black Cast Reaches $1 Billion in Sales in 26 Days!

Disney says that Black Panther is one of only 5 films in from Marvel Studios to reach the milestone. The other four films are The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Iron Man 3, and Captain America: Civil War. Disney now holds eight of the top 10 all-time domestic debuts.

After being released in China this past weekend, Disney’s mega hit Black Panther has surpassed the $1 billion mark at the global box office. The film has made $521 million domestically, and more than $480 million internationally. The historic announcement was made on the 26th day of the film’s release.

Internationally, Black Panther opened day and date with North America in nearly 70 percent of the marketplace, with No. 1 debuts in almost all territories and particularly strong starts in the U.K. and Korea. In the U.K. and Ireland, the film set a new February opening weekend record.

Film experts, however, have long expected the film to surpass the $1 billion mark. Kicking off with a domestic February preview record of $25.2 million, Black Panther grossed $75.8 million in its first day, followed by the fourth biggest Saturday ever with $65.9 million, the second-best Sunday in history with $60.1 million, behind only Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and remarkably, the biggest Monday ever with $40.2 million. It is the 18th No. 1 debut out of 18 releases in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the ninth MCU release to open above $100 million.

In Korea, Black Panther was the fifth biggest Western industry opening of all time and has already exceeded the entire runs of Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man. The film later opened in Russia, Japan and China, and did just as well in all three countries.

Black Panther has earned raves from critics and audiences alike. It received a rare A+ CinemaScore from audiences and has an exceptional 97-percent Certified Fresh aggregate critics score on RottenTomatoes, the highest ever for a Marvel film.