{"id":32122,"date":"2022-12-01T03:16:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-01T03:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=32122"},"modified":"2022-12-03T03:00:36","modified_gmt":"2022-12-03T03:00:36","slug":"resounding-success-of-black-panther-franchise-says-little-about-the-dubious-state-of-black-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/resounding-success-of-black-panther-franchise-says-little-about-the-dubious-state-of-black-film\/","title":{"rendered":"Resounding success of \u2018Black Panther\u2019 franchise says little about the dubious state of Black\u00a0film"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Phillip Lamarr Cunningham<\/a>, Wake Forest University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Marvel Studios released \u201cBlack Panther<\/a>\u201d in February 2018, it marked the first Marvel Cinematic Universe film to feature a Black superhero and star a predominantly Black cast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its estimated production budget was US$200 million<\/a>, making it the first Black film<\/a> \u2013 conventionally defined as a film that is directed by a Black director, features a Black cast, and focuses on some aspect of the Black experience \u2013 ever to receive that level of financial support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a scholar of media and Black popular culture, I was often asked<\/a> to respond to the resounding success of that first \u201cBlack Panther\u201d film, which had shattered expectations of its box office performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Would it lead to more big-budget Black films? Was its popularity an indication that the global marketplace \u2013 the real source of trepidation<\/a> about the film\u2019s potential \u2013 was finally ready to embrace Black-cast films?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the release of the massively successful<\/a> \u201cBlack Panther: Wakanda Forever<\/a>\u201d in November 2022, I expect those questions to reemerge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet as I review the cinematic landscape between the original and its sequel, I am inclined to restate the answer I gave back in 2018: Assumptions should not be made about the state of Black film based on the success of the \u201cBlack Panther\u201d franchise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reason for optimism<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Prior to its release, the producers of \u201cBlack Panther\u201d faced questions<\/a> about whether there was a market for a Black blockbuster film, even one ensconced in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After all, since the Wesley Snipes-led \u201cBlade<\/a>\u201d trilogy, which came out in the late-1990s and early 2000s, Black superhero films had experienced diminishing returns. There was one notable exception: the commercially successful, though heavily panned \u201cHancock<\/a>\u201d (2008), starring Will Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Man<\/a>
Wesley Snipes attends the premiere of \u2018Blade 2\u2019 in March 2002. Vince Bucci\/Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, Black superhero films such as \u201cCatwoman<\/a>\u201d (2004) and \u201cSleight<\/a>\u201d (2016) either flopped or had a limited release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, until \u201cBlack Panther,\u201d no Black film exceeded a $100 million budget, the average benchmark<\/a> for modern Hollywood blockbusters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless, despite these early concerns, \u201cBlack Panther\u201d earned the highest domestic gross, $700 million<\/a>, of all films released in 2018, while earning $1.3 billion in worldwide gross, second only to \u201cAvengers: Infinity War<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBlack Panther\u201d emerged at the tail end of what many industry experts considered to be a surprisingly successful<\/a> run of Black films, which included the biopic \u201cHidden Figures<\/a>\u201d (2016) and the raunchy comedy \u201cGirls Trip<\/a>\u201d (2017). Despite their modest budgets, they earned over $100 million apiece at the box office \u2013 $235 million<\/a> and $140 million<\/a>, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, both films were mostly reliant on the domestic box office, especially the R-rated \u201cGirls Trip,\u201d which was only released in a handful of foreign markets. Conventional wisdom<\/a> has long held that Black films will fail abroad. International distributors and studios typically ignore them during the presale process or at film festivals and markets, reasoning<\/a> that Black films are too culturally specific \u2013 not only in terms of their Blackness, but also their Americanness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Films like \u201cBlack Panther\u201d and the Oscar winning \u201cMoonlight<\/a>\u201d (2016), which earned more on the international market<\/a> than the domestic market, certainly challenged those assumptions. It has yet to upend them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black films after \u2018Black Panther\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What do those Black films released in theaters in the nearly five years between \u201cBlack Panther\u201d and \u201cBlack Panther: Wakanda Forever\u201d tell us about the former\u2019s impact?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The simple answer is that the original \u201cBlack Panther\u201d has had no discernible influence on industry practices whatsoever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2018, no other Black blockbuster has emerged, save for the sequel itself. Granted, Black filmmaker Ava DuVernay\u2019s remake of \u201cA Wrinkle in Time<\/a>\u201d (2018) reportedly cost an estimated $100 million; however, while Black actors portrayed the protagonist and a few other characters, the film features a multicultural ensemble cast \u2013 which, as scholars such as Mary Beltran<\/a> have pointed out, has become the primary strategy for achieving diversity in film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if one were to include \u201cA Wrinkle in Time,\u201d the grand total of Black films with budgets exceeding $100 million is three, with the two \u201cBlack Panther\u201d films being the others \u2013 all during an era in which there have been hundreds<\/a> of mainstream films with budgets exceeding $100 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, most of the Black films released in theaters between 2018 and 2022 typically were low budget by Hollywood standards \u2013 $3 million to $20 million in most cases \u2013 with only a handful, such as the 2021 Aretha Franklin biopic \u201cRespect<\/a>,\u201d costing $50 million to 60 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the most notable change has been the medium. Many Black films now appear on either cable networks that cater to a Black audience \u2013 namely Black Entertainment Television and, more recently, Lifetime \u2013 or on streaming services such as Netflix. Tyler Perry, the most popular and prolific Black filmmaker of the modern era, has released his latest films \u2013 \u201cA Jazzman\u2019s Blues<\/a>\u201d (2022), \u201cA Madea Homecoming<\/a>\u201d (2022) and \u201cA Fall from Grace<\/a>\u201d (2020) \u2013 directly to Netflix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, no other Black film has approached the financial success of \u201cBlack Panther.\u201d Granted, several Black films have fared well at the box office, especially relative to their production costs. Foremost among them is Jordan Peele\u2019s \u201cUs<\/a>\u201d (2019), which cost an estimated $20 million, yet earned approximately $256 million worldwide despite its R rating and the fact that it was never released in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whither Black film<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Without question, large budgets and commercial success are not the only measures of a film\u2019s value and significance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As has historically been the case, Black film has managed to do more with less. The critical acclaim afforded to films such as \u201cBlackKlansman<\/a>\u201d (2018), \u201cIf Beale Street Could Talk<\/a>\u201d (2019) and \u201cKing Richard<\/a>\u201d (2021) reflect this fact. All reflect trends in contemporary Black filmmaking \u2013 comedies, historical dramas and biopics abound, for instance \u2013 and were made for a fraction of the cost of both \u201cBlack Panther\u201d films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In truth, the zeal with which some cast \u201cBlack Panther\u201d as a bellwether for Black films is part of continued haranguing over their viability, particularly after the #OscarsSoWhite<\/a> movement that drew attention to the lack of diversity at the 2016 Academy Awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, its positioning as a Disney property within Marvel\u2019s transmedia storytelling effort makes it so atypical that its success \u2014 and that of its sequel \u2014 portends little about Black film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phillip Lamarr Cunningham<\/a>, Assistant Professor, Media Studies, Wake Forest University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Phillip Lamarr Cunningham, Wake Forest University When Marvel Studios released \u201cBlack Panther\u201d in February 2018, it marked the first Marvel Cinematic Universe film to feature a Black superhero and star a predominantly Black cast. Its estimated production budget was US$200 million, making it the first Black film \u2013 conventionally defined as a film that is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":32123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293,8025],"tags":[11552,4019,453,8125,1409,3183,13048,2225,6253,4015,8805],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32122"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32122"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32138,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32122\/revisions\/32138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}