Black Panther roars past $1bn at the box office

Marvel Studios chief recently said there 'absolutely' will be a sequel to the hit film

Black Panther has passed the $1 billion dollar mark at the worldwide box office - just four weeks after its release.

According to Forbes, the film achieved the feat on Friday 9 March, marking another milestone and challenging industry norms about movies with predominantly black casts.

The film starring Chadwick Boseman, Lupita Nyong’o and Michael B Jordan is the fifth made by Marvel to hit $1bn, after The Avengers; Avengers: Age of Ultron, Iron Man 3, and Captain America: Civil War.

Receiving near-universal critical acclaim, the film recently achieved the rare feat of a 100 per cent “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige spoke to Entertainment Weekly where he said there “absolutely” will be a Black Panther sequel.

“One of the favourite pastimes at Marvel Studios is sitting around on a Part One and talking and dreaming about what we would do in a Part Two,” he said.

“There have been plenty of those conversations as we were putting together the first Black Panther. We have ideas and a pretty solid direction on where we want to head with the second one."

The international success of Black Panther has helped break “unwritten Hollywood rules,” Jeff Bock, a senior analyst at entertainment research firm Exhibitor Relations, told The New York Times.

“I think about it like a wall crumbling," he continued. “In terms of Black Panther, no studio can say again, ’Oh, black movies don’t travel, overseas interest will be minimal.’”