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Black Panther Is Highest Grossing Film Ever In Sub-Saharan Africa

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Black Panther Shatters Titanic Box Office Record
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Black Panther close to breaking all time record. (Photo credit: File photo)

Five weeks after its release, Marvel Studios first black superhero, Black Panther has lived up to the hype that proceeds it by becoming the highest grossing film in southern, East and West Africa ever.

Black Panther has grossed 77.6 million rand (just under $6.5 million) in South Africa and its neighboring countries, and another 102.4 million Kenyan shillings (just over $1 million) in cinemas in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda. In Nigeria, Ghana, and Liberia, the film has hauled in N642.5 million ($2.1 million).

 The numbers seem small when comparing Black Panther’s global ticket sales of more than a $1 billion and counting. Even in China, where at least one reviewer wondered whether “the Chinese are still not used to a film full of black people”, Black Panther opened at the top of the box office with a respectable $66 million in its first weekend.
But the figures coming out of Africa are remarkable given how nascent the film industry is on the continent in comparison to other markets.

There is no one box office formula that works across Africa, especially given the differing levels of infrastructure in its 54 countries. While South Africa may have two successful cinema chains, which also operate in neighboring countries, local and African films still struggle to attract a full house.

Most cinemas in Africa aren’t theaters with comfy seats and wide screens, but there are audiences here who lap up releases which often go straight to DVD.

Black Panther director and scriptwriter Ryan Coogler was determined to make the film’s fictional setting of Wakanda a positive image of Africa.



Joshua Oyenigbehin is an introvert who is passionate about Storytelling, writing and teaching. He sees his imagination as an unsearchable world, more magical than a fairyland. He has written a novel and working on another.

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