Black Panther has been out for four weeks now and it's already sold more tickets in North America than every prior MCU entry save for
The Avengers. With an estimated 63 million tickets sold, it's already the 4th-most-attended superhero movie in North American history, having just outsold Tim Burton's
Batman (est. 62.9m tickets) and with Sam Raimi's
Spider-Man (est. 69.4m) next in its leapfrog line.
Black Panther sold more tickets in its opening weekend than any other superhero movie except for
The Dark Knight and both Avengers movies.
Disney would be nuts not to play up the presence of Black Panther, Wakanda and the related supporting characters in the marketing for
Avengers: Infinity War at this point. Black Panther is clearly popular in America. Marvel took their sweet time getting around to making a Black Panther movie, instead bringing other heroes to the screen first like Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Ant-Man and Doctor Strange, only to have Black Panther prove to be a bigger draw than any of them. I'll bet the folks at Marvel are kicking themselves for not putting Black Panther front-and-center in that money shot with all of them charging toward the camera.
In the 1990s, Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and the X-Men were the most popular superheroes in America. We're living in the age of Black Panther, Wonder Woman, Deadpool and the Guardians of the Galaxy now!
Here's the main poster for
Avengers: Infinity War.