The long-awaited “Black Panther” movie was smashing records long before its release, and it’s premiere weekend is expected to be no different. Beatrice Verhoeven, film reporter at The Wrap, says that while the film was originally expected to bring in a little under $150 million over the President’s Day holiday, there’s now no telling what it can do. “I think tracking is all over the place because word of mouth is blowing up,” she told Cheddar. “We’re seeing now $175 million...I’ve seen some people on Twitter say $200 million.” Tickets for “Black Panther” were available for presale on January 10 and brought in more orders in the first 24 hours than any other Marvel movie. That momentum continued into its preview night, with the movie raking in $25.2 million Thursday, ahead of estimates for $22 to $24 million, and narrowly edging out “Captain America: Civil War,” which made $25 million in May 2016. It’s now got the second biggest preview-night haul for Marvel, behind only “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” which brought in $27.6 million in May 2015. Verhoeven says the number is particularly significant for a February release, having doubled the number of the previous record-holder “Deadpool.” “May is the start of the summer blockbuster season,” she said. “So you’ll have the big tentpole movies open from May to the middle of August. That’s when the big blockbusters used to come, so ‘Deadpool’ was an anomaly.”
