'Black Panther' Debuts With $25.2 Million Thursday Box Office

The numbers are in and Black Panther has just clawed its way to a $25.2 million Thursday preview night at the box office.

Analysts had been predicting the film would land in the $22 million to $24 million range on Thursday but the official numbers mark the largest for any standalone super hero film from Marvel Studios. In fact, the only Marvel Studios film to have had a bigger Thursday at the box office was The Avengers sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron which hauled in $27.6 million. The numbers top Captain America: Civil War's $25 million Thursday.

Adding to the impressive nature of the numbers, Black Panther's Thursday numbers nearly doubled those of Deadpool. Deadpool, a 21st Century Fox film disconnected from Marvel Studios and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, earned $12.7 million on its opening night before going on to pull in $152.1 million on the February 12 weekend of 2016. Current predictions claim T'Challa and his Wakandan nation will enjoy more riches yet, as the film could earn as much as $200 million over the weekend and is expected to top $180 million.

In its first two days open overseas, Black Panther earned $23.2 million in 17 box office markets. More specifically, Black Panther garnered $4.7 million in Korea, marking the market's second largest opening of any Marvel Studios title. In the United Kingdom, the film has earned $7.2 million, topping Doctor Strange, Ant-Man, Wonder Woman, and Deadpool.

Speaking to ComicBook.com, director Ryan Coogler opened up about the process which helped him land the Black Panther director job. "It's weird because it wasn't a pitch as much as I got a call from Nate Moore, who produced on [Captain America: The Winter Soldier] and [Captain America: Civil War]," Coogler said. "He was kind of [Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige]'s right hand on all he projects and I got a call from him. He had been shepherding the film along at the studio for a number of years now. So I got a call from him, talked to to him about what they were trying to do, trying to figure out how the studio worked because I didn't really know how they worked intimately. I was curious."

From there, Coogler heard the vision of the project from Marvel Studios' executives before continuing with his own work. "I sat with that, and I had to process," Coogler says. "I watched Civil War which hadn't been out yet. I had to process what I would do and I came back to them and I talked to them. I thought that I wanted to make it but only if I got to explore this certain things."

Watch ComicBook.com's interview with Coogler in the video above and head over to ComicBook.com Originals' YouTube channel for more exclusive interviews with the film's cast!

Black Panther hits theaters on February 16, 2018. Advanced tickets are on sale now wherever tickets are sold. Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include; Avengers: Infinity War on May 4th, Ant-Man and the Wasp on July 6th, Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 5, 2019, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020.

(via Deadline)