The weekend was a historical one at the box office for Ava DuVernay and Ryan Coogler. The two filmmakers took the top two spots at the weekend’s box office with Black Panther and A Wrinkle In Time, marking the first time that African-American directors have held the number one and number two positions.

The Coogler directed Black Panther took the top spot for the fourth weekend in a row and added another $41.1 million in North America, pushing the film to the $1 billion mark globally.  A Wrinkle In Time, directed by DuVernay and based on the classic novel by Madeleine L’Engle, raked in $33.3 million to nab the second spot.

The two directors have praised one another’s work on their respective films, with Coogler even penning a letter for DuVernay for the opening day of her movie.

In the ode, Coogler touchingly described what he felt DuVernay put into the A Wrinkle In Time and why it will resonate with the audience:

Then she infused the love she had for her father, and her mother who is still with us, into the beautiful film “A Wrinkle in Time.” I watched closely from across the hall at Disney while working on “Black Panther” as my big sister inspired her crew with love and navigated the challenges of studio filmmaking, adapting a book that many people called unfilmable into a movie that explodes with hope, with love and with women warriors.

But above all, it’s a film about a little black girl with glasses — like my mom, like my wife, like my big sister Ava — who refuses to accept that her dad is lost. The main character in the film, Meg, uses her love, her hope and her kickass skills as a scientist to bring him back, and maybe she saves the universe along the way.

Which of these films did you check out this weekend? Let us know in the comment section below.

Be sure to check out the spoiler-free GOC review of A Wrinkle In Time here.

Source: Box Office Mojo