By Dave McNary
LOS ANGELES, Feb 25, (Variety.com) - Disney-Marvel's "Black Panther" is dominating the box office with an astounding $108 million at 4,020 North American locations -- the second-highest second weekend ever behind "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."
"Black Panther," starring Chadwick Boseman, has now grossed $400 million domestically in its first 10 days. Only "The Force Awakens" has reached that milestone faster. It's also grossed $304 million internationally.
The superhero film, the 18th in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, declined only 46 percent from its opening Friday-Sunday -- underlining the film's massive appeal among moviegoers. "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" set the second weekend record with $149 million in 2015, and "Black Panther" topped the second weekends of 2015's "Jurassic World" at $106.6 million, and 2012's "The Avengers" with $103 million.
"Black Panther," directed by Ryan Coogler, has caught on with moviegoers this month in a way that few other titles have in Hollywood's recent history -- blowing past last month's tracking that showed it would open in the $100 million to $120 million range. It's notched an A+ Cinemascore -- becoming only the second Marvel film to do so -- and has dazzled critics with a 97 percent "fresh" score on Rotten Tomatoes. The film also stars Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya and Letitia Wright.
ComScore's PostTrack scores of the audience for the second weekend show support among moviegoers far above average with 69 percent rating the film as "excellent" and another 23 percent as "very good."
Warner Bros.-New Line's opening of R-rated "Game Night," starring Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams, finished a distant second with $16.6 million from 3,488 locations. The film is directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, and follows Bateman and McAdams as couple whose regular game night suddenly turns into a murder mystery. Critics have given "Game Night" strong support, helping draw an 82 percent "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.