'Black Panther' Now Tracking for $170 Million Plus Opening Weekend

With every day that goes by, Black Panther's opening box office projections continue to climb.

As recently as Monday, Marvel's latest adventure was on track for $165 million in its opening weekend. Now, the updates tracking numbers are expecting an even higher debut. According to Variety, Black Panther is now eyeing more than $170 million over the course of the four-day President's Day weekend.

If these numbers remain accurate, Black Panther should shatter the current record for the President's Day box office. Deadpool set the record in 2016 with a $152 million opening weekend. Black Panther will easily surpass the second highest box office for the holiday weekend, Fifty Shades of Grey's $93 million bow in 2015.

In addition to breaking the records set by other studios, Black Panther's massive tracking numbers could help it rise amongst the ranks of Marvel.

$170 million in its first weekend would be enough to make Black Panther the fifth highest opening weekend in the history of Marvel Studios. With a little extra push, the film could likely beat out the third and fourth place films on that esteemed list. Iron Man 3 took in just over $174 million in 2013 and Captain America: Civil War opened to $179 million less than two years ago.

While Black Panther could conquer those two releases, it's highly unlikely that the film could take one of the studio's top two spots. Avengers: Age of Ultron made $191 million in 2015, falling short of the first Avengers' total of $207 million.

At the moment, Black Panther is outpacing all of these films in terms of ticket pre-sales. Ryan Coogler's Marvel debut has sold early tickets than any other first quarter releases in the studio's history. Additionally, the movie is Marvel's top seller in IMAX ticket pre-sales.

The box office projections for Black Panther are completely indicative of the online hype exhibited by fans. Through the first month and a half of the year, Black Panther is 2018's most tweeted-about movie, with over 5 million impressions on the social media site.

Directed by Ryan Coogler, Black Panther stars Chadwick Boseman, Danai Gurira, Lupita Nyong'o, Michael B. Jordan, Letitia Wright, Daniel Kaluuya, Winston Duke, Martin Freeman, Angela Bassett, Andy Serkis, and Forest Whitaker.

Black Panther hits theaters on February 16.