The runaway success of ‘Black Panther’ is showing no signs of slowing down, following the news it has now surpassed the $1 billion mark in the US.
‘Black Panther’ - which stars Chadwick Boseman as the titular hero - is now the fifth film from the Marvel cinematic universe to reach the $1 billion (£794 million) milestone, and is the first film of 2018 to do so.
Since its release last month, ‘Black Panther’ has enjoyed mammoth success both critically and commercially.
The film debuted with near-unanimous praise, briefly enjoying a 100% positive rating on film review curation website Rotten Tomatoes, though this was later disturbed by a critic from the Irish Times, who suggested there wasn’t enough “jumping around beating up bad guys”.
However, it still holds the title of highest-rated film in the superhero genre on the site, with a still-very-respectable 97% score.
Meanwhile, it’s also been breaking box office records ever since its release, including having the most commercially successful opening weekend for a film with a black director in history, a record previously held by F. Gary Gray’s ‘Furious 7’, which was also the first film with a black director to break the $100 million mark.
‘Black Panther’ also achieved the biggest February opening of all time, overtaking ‘Deadpool’, which made $152m in 2016.
As well as leading man Chadwick Boseman, the film boasts an impressive cast including Lupita Nyong’o, Angela Bassett, Michael B Jordan and ‘Get Out’ star Daniel Kaluuya, who received the Rising Star award at the Baftas last month.
You can check out our HuffPost Verdict on ‘Black Panther’ here.