'Solo: A Star Wars Story' Outpacing 'Black Panther' in Advanced Ticket Sales

Solo: A Star Wars Story is already breaking records and has bypassed Disney's own Black Panther in advanced ticket sales, Deadline reports.

The studio already owns the top five ticket pre-sales on retailer Fandango, who reported their highest pre sale tickets of all time just days ago. Star Wars: The Force Awakens topped the list, followed by Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Avengers: Infinity War, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and Black Panther.

Tickets are now available for Lucasfilm's Han Solo-led prequel, which has bested Black Panther in its first 24 hours on Fandango. Industry analysts predict the Ron Howard-directed Solo will earn $170 million in its opening debut, with estimates expecting the film to land between $165 million and $175 million over Memorial Day weekend.

These first 24 hours for the latest Star Wars standalone so far represent one of the best first day presages of 2018 for Fandango, behind just Marvel Studios' Avengers: Infinity War, which made tickets available on March 16.

Marvel's ten-years-in-the-making crossover event toppled Black Panther's pre sale record in just six hours on March 16, but the Wakandan king-slash-superhero is still Fandango's only solo superhero movie in the top five.

When advanced tickets went on sale for Black Panther in February, the film was then Fandango's fourth highest-selling pre sale in the 18 years the service has been available. That made Black Panther the best superhero pre sale on the site's history, topping previous record holders Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Captain America: Civil War.

Disney keeps having a hell of a year: just last week, the studio won the designation of crossing the $1 billion mark in record time, a feat Disney accomplished with box office monsters The Last Jedi, Black Panther, and now Infinity War.

The Mouse House celebrated the record-smashing success of Black Panther, the 18th film in the Marvel pantheon, after the film earned more than $1.3 billion globally to become the number one superhero movie domestically and the then third-biggest release of all time. Its now the ninth highest-grossing movie of all time, just ahead of The Last Jedi, now ranked tenth.

Infinity War will land somewhere in the top ten all-time globally: the Avengers threequel already scored the biggest-ever opening weekend of all time and will bypass the $1 billion dollar milestone today or tomorrow after just one week since its stateside debut.

Solo: A Star Wars Story opens May 25.