Beyond ‘Black Panther,’ Studios Are Losing Interest in the Domestic Blockbuster

As expected, last week “Black Panther” passed $1 billion worldwide when China opened to strong numbers.

Overseas, the Marvel title now ranks above nearly all recent comic-book movie adaptations.

Next week, it should cross $600 million in North America.This is wonderful news on many levels: For Marvel and for Disney, certainly; for diversity representation in the blockbuster realm.

But what “Black Panther” can’t do is uplift the rest of the marketplace: Where “Black Panther” has soared this year, most releases lag.The simplest way to compare year-over-year box office is to check the respective box office totals year to date.

By that standard, 2018 looks terrific at the moment; we’re up eight percent.However, by this point last year, we had five films — “Split,” “The Lego Batman Movie,” “Fifty Shades Darker,” “Logan,” and “Kong: Skull Island” — open to over $40 million.

“Get Out” opened a little below that, but already earned $100 million.

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