During last week’s earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Iger noted that the upcoming Marvel film Black Panther had moved more presale tickets than any other superhero film ever made. Now tracking puts Panther‘s debut north of $165 million. As THR notes, that figure is up significantly from two weeks ago when research suggested the film could expect an opening in the $125 million range. Certainly helping its prospects is the fact that film currently holds a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Given these latest projections, it seems increasingly likely that Black Panther will surpass Deadpool‘s $132 million take to claim the largest opening weekend for a film opening in February. It also would put its weekend haul in between recent hits Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ($146 million) and Captain America: Civil War ($179 million) — both of which opened in the month of May.
Black Panther hits theatres February 16th.