‘Wakanda’ still reigns on weak Thanksgiving weekend in North America

Los Angeles: “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” again ruled the North American box office this weekend, while two new high-budget releases had “weak” openings, analysts said.

Disney and Marvel´s “Wakanda” took in an estimated $45.9 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period, or $64 million for the full Thanksgiving weekend starting Wednesday, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported Sunday.

But the dropoff was sharp after that popular superhero tale, despite the holiday weekend. Overall, the weekend´s top dozen films had 12 percent less in ticket sales than the top 12 of a year earlier. In second place was Disney´s computer-animated sci-fi movie “Strange World,” at $11.9 million for three days and $18.6 million for five days. Variety.com called that a “catastrophic” result for a film with a $180 million budget.