Black Panther fends off Tomb Raider to become first movie to top box office for five straight weekends since Avatar

T'Challa still rules the box office in its fifth week, even with the fresh rivalry of Warner Bros' Tomb Raider as estimates for the weekend’s ticket sales put Marvel’s Black Panther ahead of the video game reboot.

Though Tomb Raider edged past Black Panther with $9.1 million on Friday, the latter is expected to top the weekend with $27 million from 3,834 theatres, according to Variety. Tomb Raider is looking at a $22 million debut from its 3,854 locations.

T'Challa in Black Panther (L) and Lara Croft in Tomb Raider

This makes the Ryan Coogler-directed Black Panther the first movie since Avatar in 2009 to hold the top box office spot for five straight weeks.

The Marvel and Disney phenomenon, starring Chadwick Boseman, crossed the $1 billion mark worldwide last weekend and passed The Dark Knight.

With a marketplace still dominated by Black Panther, Disney faced some stiff competition from its own studio in launching Ava DuVernay's adaption of A Wrinkle in Time, which is expected to take third place with $16 million this week.

Tomb Raider’s revival is based primarily on a 2013 iteration of the game, which takes place on the fictional lost island of Yamatai near Japan. In the film, Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander) leads a profligate youth following her father’s disappearance, but then is pulled back into the fold when she is inspired to scrutinise his vanishing while on one of his treacherous archaeological adventures.

With inputs from agencies