"Black Panther" Is Going to Have a Huge Opening Weekend
The long-awaited “Black Panther” movie was smashing records long before its release, and it’s premiere weekend is expected to be no different.
Beatrice Verhoeven, film reporter at The Wrap, says that while the film was originally expected to bring in a little under $150 million over the President’s Day holiday, there’s now no telling what it can do.
“I think tracking is all over the place because word of mouth is blowing up,” she told Cheddar. “We’re seeing now $175 million...I’ve seen some people on Twitter say $200 million.”
Tickets for “Black Panther” were available for presale on January 10 and brought in more orders in the first 24 hours than any other Marvel movie.
That momentum continued into its preview night, with the movie raking in $25.2 million Thursday, ahead of estimates for $22 to $24 million, and narrowly edging out “Captain America: Civil War,” which made $25 million in May 2016. It’s now got the second biggest preview-night haul for Marvel, behind only “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” which brought in $27.6 million in May 2015.
Verhoeven says the number is particularly significant for a February release, having doubled the number of the previous record-holder “Deadpool.”
“May is the start of the summer blockbuster season,” she said. “So you’ll have the big tentpole movies open from May to the middle of August. That’s when the big blockbusters used to come, so ‘Deadpool’ was an anomaly.”
“That '70s Show” star Danny Masterson was led out in handcuffs from a Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday and could get 30 years to life in prison after a jury found him guilty on two of three counts of rape at his second trial, in which the Church of Scientology played a central role.
The trial of the man charged in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history opened Tuesday with his own lawyer acknowledging that he planned and carried out the 2018 massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue and made hateful statements about Jewish people.
In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Anne del Castillo, commissioner of the NYC Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME), joined Cheddar News to discuss her role in helping bring back the city's entertainment industry after the pandemic.
Cheddar News anchor Hena Doba joins Fern Mallis, founder of New York Fashion Week, for a walk-and-talk touching on the origins of the weeklong event and how it became one of the biggest celebrations of fashion in the world.
