BLACK PANTHER Beats Out TITANIC At Box Office? Sort Of

All the headlines are saying that Marvel's surprise hit, Black Panther, is now beating Titanic with their box office numbers. They're calling it the third-biggest box office movie in U.S. history. And that's cool. It's like when Deadpool came out and destroyed most other films at the box office in its demographic.

Back on track:  It's estimated that by Monday Black Panther will have passed Titanic's $659.4 domestic million to take third. BTW:  Avatar sits in second-place with $760.5 million.

Looking at the Domestic Gross Box Office Record, as of the moment this post went live, Star Wars takes a few spots in the top-15 spots, but you can see that Black Panther is right there, looking to take third by the end of the weekend:

-

Obviously the latter era films that perform above average will benefit from the power of inflation. One of my favorite examples is that films that cost $5 back in the day will fall to films that cost $15 today. Heck one day Friday the 13th, part 100 will outperform good movies from yesteryear due to what movie tickets will cost by then.

Marvel Movies on Amazon.

But...

Then I like to do my all-time favorite thing and that's look at how films truly performed when we adjust ticket prices for inflation and put them all on a level playing field!

If you adjust all the domestic ticket prices for inflation, this all-time top performing list of films changes drastically...

-

Suddenly the chart looks totally different. Heck, Black Panther doesn't even show up here.  It sits 34th in this new, inflation adjusted list.

Don't get me wrong... Marvel's Black Panther is a worthy movie with a great story and I loved it. And I can appreciate that when media reports box office records, it's great marketing, but it's just spin the generate more potential sales, when in reality, well, Gone with the Wind is not just a film classic, it's a box office ass-kicker.

-

Sources:
mashable.com/black-panther-titanic-box-office
boxofficemojo.com/alltime/domestic.htm
boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Follow Cinema Static on: