The original “Black Panther” had no discernible impact on industry practices.
In February 2018, Marvel Studios released “Black Panther,” the first Marvel Cinematic Universe film to feature a Black superhero and a predominantly Black cast.
Its estimated production budget was $200 million, making it the first Black film – conventionally defined as a film directed by a Black director, starring a Black cast, and focusing on some aspect of the Black experience – to receive that level of funding.
As a media and Black popular culture scholar, I was frequently asked to comment on the resounding success of the first “Black Panther” film, which had shattered box office expectations.
Will it result in more big-budget Black films? Was its success an indication that the global market, which had been a source of concern about the film’s potential, was finally ready to embrace Black-cast films?
I expect those questions to resurface with the release of the massively successful “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” in November 2022.
However, as I reflect on the cinematic landscape between the original and its sequel, I am compelled to reiterate my response from 2018: assumptions about the state of Black film should not be made based on the success of the “Black Panther” franchise.
Reason to be optimistic
Prior to its release, “Black Panther” producers were asked whether there was a market for a Black blockbuster film, even one set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
After all, Black superhero films have seen diminishing returns since the Wesley Snipes-led “Blade” trilogy debuted in the late 1990s and early 2000s. There was one notable exception: Will Smith’s commercially successful, but critically panned, “Hancock” (2008).
Black superhero films such as “Catwoman” (2004) and “Sleight” (2016), on the other hand, either flopped or had a limited release.
Furthermore, until “Black Panther,” no Black film had exceeded a $100 million budget, the modern Hollywood blockbuster’s average.
Despite these early reservations, “Black Panther” earned the highest domestic gross of any film released in 2018, $700 million, with a worldwide gross of $1.3 billion, second only to “Avengers: Infinity War.”
“Black Panther” arrived at the tail end of what many industry observers saw as a surprisingly successful run of Black films, which included the biopic “Hidden Figures” (2016) and the raunchy comedy “Girls Trip” (2016). (2017). Despite their modest budgets, both films grossed more than $100 million at the box office, earning $235 million and $140 million, respectively.
However, both films relied heavily on domestic box office, particularly the R-rated “Girls Trip,” which was only released in a few foreign markets. For a long time, conventional wisdom held that Black films would fail in foreign markets.
International distributors and studios typically ignore them during the presale process, as well as at film festivals and markets, on the grounds that Black films are too culturally specific – not only in terms of their Blackness, but also of their Americanness.
Films such as “Black Panther” and the Oscar-winning “Moonlight” (2016), which earned more money in the international market than in the domestic market, certainly called those assumptions into question. It has yet to turn them upside down.
Black films following ‘Black Panther’
What can the nearly five years between “Black Panther” and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Black films tell us about the former’s impact?
The short answer is that the original “Black Panther” had no discernible impact on industry practices.
Except for the sequel, no other Black blockbuster has been released since 2018. While Black actors portrayed the protagonist and a few other characters in Ava DuVernay’s remake of “A Wrinkle in Time” (2018), the film features a multicultural ensemble cast – which, as scholars such as Mary Beltran have pointed out, has become the primary strategy for achieving diversity in film.
Even if “A Wrinkle in Time” is included, the total number of Black films with budgets exceeding $100 million is three, with the two “Black Panther” films serving as the others – all during an era when hundreds of mainstream films had budgets exceeding $100 million.
Otherwise, most Black films released in theatres between 2018 and 2022 were low-budget by Hollywood standards, ranging from $3 million to $20 million, with only a few exceptions, such as the 2021 Aretha Franklin biopic “Respect,” costing $50 million to $60 million.
The medium has probably been the most noticeable change. Many Black films are now available on cable networks that cater to a Black audience, such as Black Entertainment Television and, more recently, Lifetime, as well as streaming services like Netflix. Tyler Perry, the most popular and prolific Black filmmaker of the modern era, has released his most recent films directly to Netflix: “A Jazzman’s Blues” (2022), “A Madea Homecoming” (2022), and “A Fall from Grace” (2020).
Furthermore, no other Black film has come close to “Black Panther’s” financial success. To be sure, several Black films have done well at the box office, especially when compared to their production costs. The most notable is Jordan Peele’s “Us” (2019), which cost an estimated $20 million but grossed approximately $256 million worldwide despite its R rating and lack of release in China.
Where is the Black film going?
Without a doubt, big budgets and commercial success aren’t the only indicators of a film’s worth and significance.
Black cinema, as has always been the case, has done more with less. This is reflected in the critical acclaim bestowed upon films such as “BlackKlansman” (2018), “If Beale Street Could Talk” (2019), and “King Richard” (2021). All of them reflect current trends in Black filmmaking – comedies, historical dramas, and biopics, for example – and were made for a fraction of the cost of both “Black Panther” films.
In reality, the zeal with which some cast “Black Panther” as a bellwether for Black films is part of the ongoing debate over their viability, particularly in the aftermath of the #OscarsSoWhite movement, which highlighted the lack of diversity at the 2016 Academy Awards.
However, because it is a Disney property within Marvel’s transmedia storytelling effort, its success — and that of its sequel — portends little for Black film.