Tickets have only been on sale since Monday and already, Black Panther is beginning to stamp its authority.
According to figures curated by Deadline, Marvel’s latest solo effort is outpacing Captain America: Civil War as Fandango’s “best-selling MCU title in the first 24 hours of presales.” That’s an impressive feat in and of itself – for the record, Civil War wound up scoring $172 million in its opening weekend – but as Black Panther is yet to come onto tracking, it’d be unwise to take these advance ticket sales at face value.
That being said, as Deadline so rightly points out, the Ryan Coogler spinoff has a silver bullet in its arsenal: the President’s Day holiday weekend. Couple this with the impending Valentine’s Day (February 14th) and it looks certain that Black Panther will receive a welcome boost at the domestic box office, potentially placing it in the company of February’s biggest debuts: Deadpool ($132.4 million) and Fifty Shades of Grey ($85.1 million).
It’s too soon for Disney to release its official projections, though industry analysts believe Black Panther is headed for an $80 million debut in North America, with a possible shot at $100m-plus – providing the film is deemed a hit among critics. If nothing else, today’s revelation is further proof that Black Panther is one of the most-anticipated new releases of 2018 – Avengers: Infinity War notwithstanding – and barring some unforeseen disaster, it appears Marvel Studios has another mega-hit on their hands.
Indeed, much like most other MCU films before it, Black Panther will begin its rollout overseas on February 9th, before T’Challa officially stakes a claim for the domestic box office crown one week later. He’ll enjoy a theatrical release fit for a king, too, as IMAX and Ryan Coogler recently outlined their plans to include a number of sequences specifically tailored for the large-screen format.