Black Panther is leaping over ticket presale records

If beating advance ticket sales for previous buzzed-about superhero films are like flipping over cars during a late-night road chase sequence in a movie trailer, then Black Panther is like…Black Panther, leaping ahead of those vehicles while a Run The Jewels track plays behind it.

It may or may not correlate to actual box-office performance come opening weekend, but Deadline reports that ticket presales for Marvel’s Black Panther have already outpaced previous record holder Captain America: Civil War for Fandango’s fastest-selling MCU title in the first 24 hours. That suggests a lot of people are eager to watch Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa go head to head with Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger, and when you add watching Danai Gurira do literally anything to that equation, it’s not surprising the film is stoking anticipation.

Despite the presale hype, estimates are still being a little more cautious when it comes to eventual opening-weekend sales, with non-Disney sources predicting an $80-85 million opening weekend (aided by the four-day President’s Day holiday weekend), well behind Civil War’s $179 million haul. Which makes sense: Not only was Civil War the kickoff to the summer movie season in 2016, it was also basically Avengers 3, for all intents and purposes. And even if it hits $100 million in its opening weekend, there’s a long way to go before the Wakandan gets close to breaking Deadpool’s February record of $132.4 million. Of course, now that Disney got its hands on the X-Men, these two superheroes can literally go head to head.

UPDATE, 1:45 p.m.: Underscoring her excitement for both the film and its excellent ticket presales, Black Panther star Lupita Nyong’o posted a video to Twitter earlier today saying that she signed on to buy Black Panther tickets on Monday night “so I can be there when the movie hit[s] theaters, and I can experience it with everybody,” only to discover that they were sold out. A nice thought, Lupita, but don’t worry. We’re sure you’ll be invited to the premiere.