Projections for the North American debut of Black Panther keep climbing, with the Marvel Studios now expected to earn $165 million in its opening weekend.

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That's up from an expected $150 million from just a week and a half ago, and $125 million before that. The overwhelmingly positive early response to director Ryan Coogler's film are driving Black Panther to set records for advance ticket sales. Currently at a 97 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it's clear that it went down a storm with critics.

If the Chadwick Boseman-led Black Panther does indeed reach, or surpass, the current $165 million projection, it will have one of the top five or six openings for a superhero movie.

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Directed by Ryan Coogler from a script he 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, Winston Duke as M’Baku and Forest Whitaker as Zuri. The film opens Friday nationwide.

(via The Hollywood Reporter)