Advance ticket sales for the highly anticipated sequel to the 2018 MCU film Black Panther have surpassed Thor: Love & Thunder after they hit $45 million on Sunday, November 6, 2022.
The sequel, which is titled Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, is scheduled for a global release (with the exception of Russia and China) on November 11, 2022.
Although the advance ticket sales have already eclipsed Thor: Love & Thunder by about 40%, they are still lagging behind the advance ticket sales for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness by about 20%.
In 2018, Black Panther sold $55 million in advance tickets and went on to earn $202 million in its opening weekend. With a few days to go before the opening weekend, the advance ticket sales for the sequel are projected to reach between $60 and $65 million.
The third film from Marvel Studios in 2022, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, is the final film in the MCU's Phase Four and will reunite director Ryan Coogler with cast members Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Angela Bassett, and Florence Kasumba, who are all set to reprise their roles.
However, the role of T'Challa will not be recast in the sequel following the tragic death of Chadwick Boseman, who succumbed to colon cancer on August 28, 2020. Chadwick had kept his illness hidden from Ryan Coogler, MCU president Kevin Feige, and other Marvel Studios executives, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, "Only a handful of non-family members knew that Boseman was sick... with varying degrees of knowledge about the severity of [his] condition."
Black Panther grossed over $1.3 billion worldwide, becoming the ninth-highest-grossing film of all time, and with its sequel set to release on November 11, which coincides with Veterans Day, there is a high likelihood that the film might set the record for the biggest opening weekend in November and surpass the current record of $158 million, which was set by The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.
Additionally, Marvel Studios will be hoping to surpass DC's The Batman, which opened to $134 million back in March 2022, and Black Adam, which opened to a low-key $67 million in October 2022.
