Black Panther

Black Panther

Overview

Black Panther is a 2018 superhero film produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The name is based off of a Marvel Comics character of the same name. Critics praised the film's direction, screenplay, acting, production values and the soundtrack. It is deemed a mainstream movie due to the genre being a superhero movie and being produced by Marvel Studios which is a well-known studio. It also has racked up a big budget of $200 million and easily managed to surpass budget figures with the box office revenue reaching $1.347 billion. 

Marvel storyline

Black Panther does not really continue the storyline of the other Marvel movies and instead the movie is a whole different section to the rest. It is still part of the same timeline as the other superhero movies as it was kept in consideration since the first Iron Man film. In 2016, two years prior Black Panther's release, the main character was featured in Captain America: Civil War. Black Panther continues a large part of the 'Marvel Cinematic Universe' in the present day and the movie gives insight into the history of the marvel timeline. The ending of the movie also has ties to the next Marvel film: Avengers: Infinity War which is crucial for the Marvel storyline.

Marketing and Production

The film was a massive success and the reception for the movie was mostly positive. This could be credited by the actors, soundtrack, fanbase and the cultural contexts that surround it. Since Black Panther is part of Marvel, it already attracted a huge fanbase from around the world. The marketing for the film could have attracted more as adverts were aired on television including one during the GRAMMYS during a break and included a song from the soundtrack. The soundtrack also merges into the marketing and publicity for the movie as rapper Kendrick Lamar's song 'All The Stars' featuring singer SZA became viral as well as the rest of the soundtrack for the movie enforcing the hip-hop genre which is associated with black culture. Other forms of promotion include the partnership with car company Lexus for a scene involving a custom car featured in the movie. Chadwick Boseman who played as Black Panther sat an interview with Jimmy Kimmel to further talk about the movie's release. 

In terms of the production, it is produced by Marvel Studios which is a well known company and the logo is shown at the start of the official trailer for the movie which already shows the audience that it involves a high budget rather than show the name of the director like many Indie films do. The filming started sometime in 2017 so they managed to make the film in a fairly short time. Since Lexus collaborated with the movie, they made a commercial during the Super Bowl event where around 102 million people watch the event through television. This shows that Marvel wanted as much people as they could get to pay more attention to the upcoming movie along the fact that a Super Bowl commercial slot costs around $5 million to broadcast. The hashtag #BlackPantherSoLit also was trending on Twitter which is likely to have caught the eye of many twitter users to further spread the movie's release.

Context for African-American media

The movie is different from the other Marvel movies in many ways. First and foremost, it stands out from the rest due to the predominantly black cast and director which is unusual for many mainstream movies. The film makes a statement more contextually where in America at the time of the film's release Donald Trump was president and he had a bad reputation of mistreating black people. The statement also refers back to how African-Americans were discriminated around the 1960s. The message and impact of Black Panther being a Hollywood hit movie is that it shows regardless of almost the entire cast being black it still managed to captivate audiences and make it a very successful movie.

The film being released in Black History Month also strengthened the 'Black Lives Matter' movement which also seemed to resonate well with the film and many members praised the film. Even to this day where earlier this year, a man named George Floyd was killed by a police officer in America which sparked protests and strengthened the 'Black Lives Matter' movement. It goes to show that even from Black Panther's release to now, racism and discrimination is still present. This links in with the Oscar Awards where the movie didn't win any major category which upset many people and saw discrimination as a factor. The hashtag #OscarsSoWhite was a viral hashtag wrote in 2015 that called out the Oscars for only having white people winning awards. Three years later and people made the hashtag trend again due to Black Panther being nominated for 'Best Picture' however they didn't win which caused people to call out the Oscars for discriminating against the movie despite how successful it was. In the end people decided that it wasn't worth calling out the Oscars since they weren't going to change anything and so just reasoned that Black Panther was still a great movie without any major category Oscar wins.