Black Panther Ticket Pre-Sales Outpacing Captain America: Civil War

The release of Black Panther is still more than a month away, but hype for the next entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is already reaching a fever pitch, as evidenced by the film’s record-setting pre-sales.

According to Deadline, Ryan Coogler film garnered enough pre-sales on Fandango during its first 24 hours to dethrone Captain America: Civil War as the MCU’s bestselling film in the category. That’s an impressive feat, given that the 2016 Captain America sequel was effectively an Avengers film, featuring such familiar heroes as Iron Man and Black Widow, and introducing Tom Holland as Spider-Man into the MCU.

Tracking for Black Panther gives the film a shot at crossing the $100-million mark during its opening weekend, a figure which would even top Warner Bros.’ Justice League despite possessing a far less-recognizable superhero.

Directed by Ryan Coogler from a script he co-wrote with Joe Robert Cole, Black Panther stars Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa, Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger, Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, Daniel Kaluuya as W’Kabi, Letitia Wright as Shuri, Danai Gurira as Okoye, Angela Bassett as Ramonda, Martin Freeman as Everett K. Ross, Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue, and Forest Whitaker as Zuri. The film opens Feb. 16.