'Black Panther' Dominates Box Office With Over $218 Million Holiday Weekend Haul

The box office predictions for the opening weekend of Black Panther kept climbing last week, even in the hours leading up to the first showings of the movie Thursday night. Now the weekend estimates are starting to become more clear, and the box office haul has far exceeded any expectations analysts had for the new Marvel movie.

As of Sunday morning, Disney's estimates for the opening weekend of Black Panther peg the Ryan Coogler-directed movie as pulling in $192 million for the three-day weekend and $218 million for the four-day Presidents Day holiday weekend. However, industry estimates outside the studio are a little higher. Get the details on the Black Panther box office below.

Deadline has the latest numbers from the opening weekend projections. Keep in mind that these are still estimates, but numbers like this during the weekend are usually pretty accurate. In the case of Black Panther though, because the movie is over-performing, there's a little bit of discrepancy with regards to how much the movie is exceeding expectations.

For example, Deadline has numbers from other industry insiders, outside of Disney's own estimates, that say the three-day take may be $195 million while the four-day haul is even higher with $225 million. There are even analysts saying the movie could end up pulling in $230 million or more across the holiday weekend. No matter what the final number is, this will be a record-breaking debut.

Going by Disney's more conservative estimates, a $192 million debut will be the highest ever opening weekend for a movie in February and the fifth highest box office opening of all-time, just behind The Avengers at $207.4 million and above Avengers: Age of Ultron's opening at $191.3 millon. That number will also blow Deadpool's previous record-setting $152 million out of the water for the biggest Presidents' Day weekend.

Helping the movie is undoubtedly the audience's favorable reaction. Black Panther got an A+ CinemaScore, and it's the only Marvel movie to pull in such a grade besides The Avengers in 2012.

Globally Black Panther is a box office beast too with an estimated three-day opening of $361 million. Obviously since the rest of the world doesn't celebrate Presidents' Day in the same way the United States does, there isn't a four-day weekend, but that box office number is still massive, and that's just in the first weekend.

While we don't want to be incendiary, many are pointing out that Black Panther is looking to make almost as much in its opening weekend as Justice League did in its entire box office run. The DC Comics movie ended up pulling in $228.6 million and Black Panther may end up passing that by the time Monday is over. At the very least, it will have surpassed Justice League by Tuesday afternoon. That just goes to show you the strength of Marvel at the box office right now.