The theme of the Black Panther box office is surpassing expectations, it appears. Projections for the film before release kept going up, up, up but few pegged a three-day total of over $200 million, which is exactly what the Marvel Studios film did. With a three-day opening weekend gross of $201.7 million, Black Panther scored the fifth highest opening of all time and broke the record for February box office, previously set by Deadpool. With a larger-than-expected Sunday, analysts predicted a four-day Presidents’ Day holiday gross of around $235 million, an astounding number—but wrong again! Indeed, the four-day totals have now arrived, and Black Panther grossed a whopping $241.964 over the first four days of its release.

The film achieved this by scoring the largest Monday opening gross of all time, raking in $40.167 million on the federal holiday to surpass even the Monday gross of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which hit $40.110 million. That’s insane—Black Panther did better than Star Wars on the Monday after release. The film now has the second-biggest four-day gross of all time, behind only The Force Awakens at $288.1 million and ahead of Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s $241.566 million.

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Image via Marvel Studios

This proves that this movie is going to have long legs, and really it feels like the sky’s the limit with regards to its final domestic total once its theatrical run is complete. This is the kind of movie that fires on all cylinders, and folks will no doubt be returning for a second, third, and fourth go-around with filmmaker Ryan Coogler’s soaring, emotional chronicle of the people of Wakanda.

Internationally Black Panther is doing gangbusters as well, as the film’s international total currently stands at $184.6 million for a worldwide cumulative gross of $426.6 million after just four days in release. And key territories still remain, as Black Panther opens in Russia on February 22nd, Japan on March 1st, and China on March 9th. Look out, folks. This is one train that’s showing no signs of slowing down.

For more on Black Panther, peruse links to our recent coverage below.

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Image via Marvel Studios
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Image via Marvel Studios
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Image via Marvel Studios