You've probably heard a lot about Black Panther in the last few weeks. You're about to see for yourself if all the hype is to be believed once Ryan Coogler's MCU debut hits theaters week. But there's every reason to believe that it's going to be one of the biggest films ever to bear the Marvel mark, especially for a solo superhero outing. And while opening weekend box office estimates were down around  $100 and $120 million just a few weeks ago, positive reviews and unstoppable buzz have pushed those numbers way up to around the $165 million mark.

As THR reports, box-office tracking outlet NRG is now counting a possible $165 million total for the four-day President's Day weekend for Black Panther. Now this is the same group of folks who said Black Panther would top out around $125 million, followed by $150 million a week later; estimates are just that, so the final result could be short of the mark, spot-on, or could even exceed expectations. Regardless, the MCU's latest effort is looking to break some substantial box office records.

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Image via Marvel Studios

First up, Fox/Marvel's Deadpool currently holds the record for the best February opening frame with $132.4 million. That's easily in Black Panther's target range. But if we're sticking inside the MCU proper, anything over Iron Man's $98.6 million opening weekend that kickstarted the cinematic universe nearly 10 years ago will be the biggest opening for a debut solo title. Everything above Iron Man's debut is either a sequel or a super-team-up, including Marvel's The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron with the top two spots of $207.4 million and $191.3 million respectively. A final weekend tally of $165 million would put Black Panther behind the #3 and #4 MCU films--Captain America: Civil War with $179.1 million and Iron Man 3 with $174.1 million.

That #3 film just so happened to serve as an introduction for Chadwick Boseman's T'Challa, a.k.a. Black Panther, and audiences responded overwhelmingly positively to his arrival. Will that excitement translate over to a huge box office win for Black Panther? I certainly think so, and now the tracking is finally starting to line up with the expectations felt by fans of the character and the creative team assembled both in front of and behind the cameras. This thing's gonna be massive.

For more on Black Panther, take a look our most recent write-ups:

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Image via Marvel Studios