LOS ANGELES, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Disney and Marvel Studios' "Black Panther" continued to lead North American box office with an estimated earning of 27.02 million U.S. dollars, becoming the first film since 2009's "Avatar" to take the top spot for five weekends in a row.
The superhero film has grossed a spectacular 605.4 million dollars in North America through Sunday.
It also earned 30 million dollars internationally this weekend, pushing its international cume to 577.1 million dollars and global cume to 1,182.5 million dollars to date, according to studio figures collected by comScore.
Directed by Ryan Coogler, "Black Panther" stars Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa / Black Panther who returns home as king of Wakanda but finds his sovereignty challenged by a long-time adversary in a conflict with global consequences.
Warner Bros.' "Tomb Raider" opened in second place with an estimated 23.52 million dollars this weekend. Directed by Norwegian filmmaker Roar Uthaug, the 90-million rebooted "Tomb Raider" stars Swedish actress Alicia Vikander as the archaeologist adventurer Lara Croft.
"Vikander is perfectly cast in the role inhabited by Angelina Jolie in the 2001 film 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider' and the 2003 sequel," wrote movie analyst Paul Dergarabedian at comScore in an email to Xinhua.
Chinese-American film star Daniel Wu Yin-cho plays Hong Kong sailor Lu Ren, a new character created for the film, who goes on the adventure with Lara as an ally.
Roadside Attractions' Christian drama film "I Can Only Imagine" opened in third place with an estimated 17.06 million dollars.
Directed by Andrew Erwin and Jon Erwin, the film stars J. Michael Finley as Bart Millard who is the lead singer of the Christian band MercyMe. "I Can Only Imagine" is a song of the band and the the best-selling Christian single of all time.
Disney's science fantasy adventure film "A Wrinkle In Time" landed in fourth place with an estimated 16.56 million dollars in its second weekend. 20th Century Fox's romantic comedy-drama film "Love, Simon" finished fifth with an estimated 11.5 million dollars in its debut weekend.
