'Black Panther' selling out Milwaukee area theaters

MILWAUKEE COUNTY, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Wisconsin Marvel fans are lining up to see the Black Panther Premiere Thursday night.  

Fans are excited to travel to the land of Wakanda, which is the fictional African nation that’s home to T’Challa, a king with superpowers, also known as the Black Panther. The trailer got many fans excited to head to the theaters Thursday night.

“Where he’s walking out on the stage, waking out on a platform and he was all the women soldiers as his bodyguards,” Clifton Pope said, “Oh that looks cool!”

Black Panther made his debut in the comics back in 1966 in ‘Fantastic Four No. 52.

“I was into the comics a long, long time ago,” Keam Blacques said. “It’s nice to see him coming back to life on the big screen.”

At Majestic Cinema in Brookfield, there were 18 showings Thursday night and most of them were sold out.

“Believe it or not this is rivaling some Star Wars numbers so we’re busy and ready for it,” Operations Manager Shawn Mellon said.

Fandango reports their advance movie tickets sales are outpacing all previous superhero movies.

“All the hype around it, everyone’s getting dressed up, I’m ready to put it on social media,” Kenida Lewis said.

While many fans sported their Marvel gear on Thursday, some fans wore outfits specifically for Black Panther.

“I’m wearing a skirt from Nigeria even though it’s western African, but we thought tonight was really important to celebrate our African heritage,” Tchernavia Rocker-Bagheri said.

The movie debut features a star-studded and predominantly black cast and it’s generating a lot of excitement.

“Most of the times in big picture cinema, there’s the villain or the bad guy is African American," Rocker-Bagheri said. "In this movie, we are heroes.”