As of Tuesday, Marvel\u2019s \u201cBlack Panther\u201d has made $476.6 million domestically in just two weeks \u2015 and it pulled in the second biggest 10-day total for a theatrical release, behind only \u201cStar Wars: The Force Awakens.\u201d<\/p>\n
It has broken many other records, too: the highest-rated superhero film of all time on Rotten Tomatoes, the biggest opening for a black director ever, and the highest-grossing first week for a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie.<\/p>\n
Having now earned over $704 million worldwide, box-office experts predict it is \u201cinevitable\u201d that the film will surpass the billion-dollar mark in a few days.<\/p>\n
Directed by Ryan Coogler and starring an almost entirely black cast, the movie has made headlines not only for its huge numbers and critical acclaim, but also for dispelling the myth that movies with black leads don\u2019t have box-office pull with audiences of all backgrounds.<\/p>\n
Indeed, it seems like every few years a film starring a predominantly black cast or directed by a black filmmaker smashes records. The story always becomes how improbable the success is, and how, perhaps, the movie in question will finally break down barriers and assumptions about the potential of black movies in Hollywood. <\/p>\n
Of course, the scale of the success of \u201cBlack Panther\u201d must be celebrated, but it shouldn\u2019t be a surprise. In the past few years alone, movies starring and\/or directed by black people have gone on to both critical acclaim and commercial success. \u201cHidden Figures,\u201d starring Octavia Spencer, Taraji P. Henson and Janelle Mon\u00e1e, was Fox\u2019s second biggest domestic release in 2016 after \u201cDeadpool\u201d and made about $236 million worldwide. <\/p>\n
The indie \u201cMoonlight,\u201d last year\u2019s Best Picture Oscar winner, made $413,175 in just four theaters on its opening weekend. With \u201cGet Out,\u201d Jordan Peele made the highest-grossing debut for a writer-director based on an original screenplay, ever. And \u201cGirls Trip\u201d became the first film written, produced, directed by and starring black people to hit the $100 million mark at the box office. <\/p>\n
This is all to say: The story that \u201cBlack Panther\u201d marks some kind of Hollywood turning point is a non-story. One thing that can be said is that \u201cBlack Panther\u201d does add to the conversation surrounding the international appeal of films with black stars. Just as Hollywood has propagated the myth that black movies don\u2019t sell domestically, there\u2019s a similar myth that they don\u2019t sell in foreign markets, particularly in Asian countries like South Korea and China, which have fast become key to the global success of blockbuster movies. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As of Tuesday, Marvel\u2019s \u201cBlack Panther\u201d has made $476.6 million domestically in just two weeks \u2015 and it pulled in the second biggest 10-day total for a theatrical release, behind only \u201cStar Wars: The Force Awakens.\u201d It has broken many other records, too: the highest-rated superhero film of all time on Rotten Tomatoes, the biggest … Continue reading “After \u2018Black Panther,\u2019 Will Hollywood Finally Admit That Black Films Can Travel?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[63],"class_list":["post-216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-movie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ampforwp.com\/demo\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ampforwp.com\/demo\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ampforwp.com\/demo\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampforwp.com\/demo\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampforwp.com\/demo\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ampforwp.com\/demo\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":238,"href":"https:\/\/ampforwp.com\/demo\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions\/238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampforwp.com\/demo\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ampforwp.com\/demo\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampforwp.com\/demo\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ampforwp.com\/demo\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}