‘Black Panther’ Reigns for 5 Weeks Atop Box Office

For the fifth-straight week, Marvel's Black Panther is once again king of the box office.

If you haven't heard, the film takes place in the fictional African nation of Wakanda, where, upon the death of his father, T'Challa has returned home to take his place as king. Sure enough, an old enemy returns and T'Challa is challenged. He must then rely on the full power of Black Panther to, along with his allies, defeat those who threaten his people.

The film has earned nearly $1.2 billion so far worldwide, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com, though exactly how much more will be known when final weekend numbers are released Monday afternoon.

Preliminary estimates for St. Pat's weekend show the film raked in another $27 million, bringing the domestic total to $605 million and edging out the opening weekend for Tomb Raider which pulled in about $23 million.

Winning five weekends in-a-row is not a common accomplishment -- only two higher-earning films have done it in the last decade and one of those started with the name Star Wars ("The Last Jedi") while the other was James Cameron's 2009 "Avatar." "The Last Jedi" was number one for five weeks while "Avatar" was number one for eight weeks from December 2009 through January 2010.

The continued draw leaves many wondering, including some Hollywood filmmakers, what is driving the film's success. Is it just another Marvel success or is it driven by something more?

Fandango.com's "Why Go" feature answered some of those questions highlighting "powerful female characters that were both strong and smart, an incredible supervillain in Erik Killmonger and the expansion of the Marvel universe into Earth's most beautiful and technologically-advanced nation of Wakanda.