‘Black Panther’ on track for $165M debut

Feb 13, 2018

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Black Panther, the biggest, Blackest movie of the year, is out here busting all the records.

On Monday, NRG, one of Hollywood’s leading tracking services, said that the highly anticipated film was estimated to make $165 million or more for its opening weekend.

If that’s the case, then this President’s day weekend, we could see Black Panther break the record for the biggest February launch ever, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

–Black Panther Preview: Meet Angela Bassett’s character Queen Ramonda–

The current record-holder for a February launch is also a superhero movie, Deadpool, at $152.2 million. While Deadpool isn’t part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it is based on a character from Marvel comics of the same name.

Breaking records

It’s no surprise to anyone paying attention that the Ryan Coogler-helmed movie is busting up records left and right. It’s not even out yet, and it has already broken a record on Twitter as the most tweeted-about movie of 2018.

–Black Panther Preview: Meet Michael B. Jordan’s character Killmonger–

On Fandango, the ticket-selling website, the movie is now the fastest-selling first-quarter film for pre-sales. It’s also on track to be the fastest-selling superhero movie in terms of pre-sales.

The movie review site “Rotten Tomatoes” also saw Black Panther break a record, with the film debuting to a perfect 100 percent fresh score. That makes it the highest debut for a Marvel superhero film to date, according to the Daily Dot. With a current 98 percent “want to watch” score as well, the movie is riding high.

Then there’s the fact that this is the first Black-led movie for the expansive Marvel Cinematic Universe. This fact in particular has been the subject of the #BlackPantherChallenge, which has seen celebrities and community members alike raising money so that children of color can see themselves as heroes.

Black Panther claws its way into theaters on Friday, February 16!