“Black Panther” surprised everyone with Monday’s box office results. The Ryan Coogler hit did $7 mil more than expected and beat “The Force Awakens” for all time Monday box office champ.

With that extra $7 million, “Panther” established itself as the second highest four day weekend champ, beating “The Last Jedi” and finishing only behind “The Force Awakens.”

That brings “Black Panther to $242 million in just four days– and now we’ve got four more days to finish out the week. A $300 million first week doesn’t sound bad, does it?

I remember when Coogler told me he had to seek out Forest Whitaker’s help at school so he could get “Fruitvale Station” made (a Weinstein company movie, by the way). Whitaker makes an extended cameo in “Black Panther,” which is nice. He should be in all of Ryan’s movies!

Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o is having fun with Black Panther co-star Chadwick Boseman’s recent racy magazine cover. See what she posted on Instagram. Hilarious. She writes:

“I admire your quiet, confident, regal nature. You brought the wealth of all your knowledge, wisdom and physicality to T’Challa. You led us into the land of Wakanda without ego, without pretense, without fear. We reap the benefits now squarely because of your courage, your fierce dedication, your intense passion, and your grueling workout regimen. And I will never get enough of the way you say the word “because.” We celebrate BREAKING BOX OFFICE RECORDS with @blackpanther for many reasons, but chief among them is because we had you as our king. Enkosi Kumkani!! And congratulations on your @rollingstone cover. From someone who loves you.”

Imitation is the best form of flattery: @chadwickboseman I admire your quiet, confident, regal nature. You brought the wealth of all your knowledge, wisdom and physicality to T'Challa. You led us into the land of Wakanda without ego, without pretense, without fear. We reap the benefits now squarely because of your courage, your fierce dedication, your intense passion, and your grueling workout regimen. And I will never get enough of the way you say the word "because." We celebrate BREAKING BOX OFFICE RECORDS with @blackpanther for many reasons, but chief among them is because we had you as our king. Enkosi Kumkani!! And congratulations on your @rollingstone cover. From someone who loves you. #CoverCosplay My 📷 by @vernonfrancois Chadwick's by Norman Jean Roy #BlackPanther #WakandaForever

A post shared by Lupita Nyong'o (@lupitanyongo) on Feb 19, 2018 at 3:00pm PST

I love “Faces/Places” the movie made by 89 year old legend Agnes Varda and 33 year old French artist JR. It’s nominated for the Oscar, and I’d be thrilled if it won.

Anyway, JR dropped by Martin Scorsese’s set for “The Irishman” and brought his cardboard cut out of Varda– it makes it easier for travel purposes. JR posted this video of Scorsese and Robert DeNiro– obviously in makeup for his role of labor organizer Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran in the movie. It’s pretty funny. And inadvertently we get to see DeNiro made up as a younger Sheeran, who is likely to have killed Jimmy Hoffa. (Apparently, Scorsese is also using CGI to de-age DeNiro.)

Below JR’s post- see Sheeran’s video:

GoodFellas 🙏🏻 @agnes.varda is nominated for the first time in her career @facesplacesfilm #nominatedforbestdocumentary

A post shared by JR (@jr) on Feb 18, 2018 at 6:12am PST

“Black Panther” scored another record yesterday: second biggest Sunday ever. Ryan Coogler’s blockbuster took in $60.1 million, probably because Saturday night results were suppressed by bad weather in so many places. “BP” just missed the Sunday record by about $400K, held by “The Force Awakens.”

The three day weekend will come in around $202 million. The four day weekend could get up to $235 million. That will make it respectively 5th place for the former, 3rd place for the latter. “Black Panther” is the biggest Marvel movie, and biggest comic book movie (if you don’t count the “Star Wars” series).

Final numbers will be in tomorrow.

Needless to say, sequels are coming. There are many reports that Coogler doesn’t have a contract for a sequel, but that’s always the case with these franchise movies and not a big story. Patty Jenkins was in the same situation with “Wonder Woman.”

Don’t worry, Coogler will be back for one if not two more “Panthers.” The great treat will be seeing all the other terrific black actors out there getting  cameos, villains, etc. as the series progresses. It’s about time, too.

Meantime, the soundtrack CD, which sold 156K copies in its first week, has slowed down over the weekend. Interscope only moved about 25K copies on Friday and Saturday. We’ll see how it does this week…

EXCLUSIVE It’s been turmoil all weekend for The Weinstein Company — well, turmoil for a long time, like since October 5, 2017 when all hell started breaking loose.

This weekend the board– whoever’s still on the board– fired COO David Glasser, who knows where all the bodies are buried. That’s what concerned the NY State AG Eric Schneiderman since Glasser was negotiating two ends to the middle– he was planning to run the new company TWC would become once it was sold.

But maybe the AG’s office didn’t realize that one of the three movies TWC still can call an unreleased asset is actually produced by Glasser’s brother, Philip. That’s “The War with Grandpa” which stars Robert DeNiro and– are you ready?– Uma Thurman. It was made last year, not in 1994. Last year.

Uma Thurman? She hates The Weinstein Company, right? Ms. Thurman didn’t mention to Maureen Dowd in their New York Times Opinion piece that she hated Harvey Weinstein so much she was starring in one of his new big productions. Seems like it escaped everyone’s attention. Thurman, who turned redder than the red carpet last October when asked about Weinstein, is still on his payroll. I do not get this. Uma Thurman is a BIG star. She’s headlining on Broadway right now. She could work with anyone. So how did she wind up back at the Weinstein Company?

But then again, how is the Chief Operating Officer’s brother producing “The War with Grandpa”? It’s a Robert DeNiro movie. Philip Glasser has 8 prior producer credits, all movies no one’s ever heard of even in Wakanda, starring people so anonymous they could be on milk cartons and never get rescued. Surprisingly, the Glassers’ father, Richard Glasser, is not the music supervisor on “Grandpa.” That’s odd, because he’s been on the TWC payroll since around 2009 when David joined the company.

Sunday’s LA Times story mentions some of the lawsuits David Glasser has been in before and during his time at TWC. But the Times didn’t get that all three Glassers– David, brother Philip and father Richard– were sued by a man named Jeffrey Cooper who wanted his $500,000 back after investing in the Glasser family’s movie production company– a company that existed while David was already working for the Weinsteins and his father was the company’s music supervisor.

The other MIA Weinstein movies are Garth Davis’s “Mary Magdalene,” starring Rooney Mara, which is going into international release in time for Easter; and “The Upside,” the American remake of “The Intouchables” by Neil Berger, with Bryan Cranston, Kevin Hart and Nicole Kidman, which played great in Toronto and is now in limbo.

There are a lot of plot holes in everyone’s stories, I’d say. Can’t wait to see them get filled in.