A superhero movie or a cultural phenomenon?
Fred Joseph, a marketing consultant from New York, created an online fundraising campaign to raise $ 10,000 so that kids from the Harlem slum can go to the movies. "Help the children to see Black Panther" has generated five times more than the expected amount and motivated to launch hundreds of similar campaigns around the world.
Joseph described the film as a rare opportunity for young students, especially students of color, to see a great cinematographic character and black comics on the big screen. Jeff Bock, of the Exhibitor Relations firm, said that the film will break that idea of what works and not in Hollywood. Several experts consulted by the AFP agreed that they expect the film to have the same effect of change as "Wonder Woman" so that the studios understand that they can earn large amounts of money betting on projects not only designed for white men.
Stan Lee said in May 2017 in Mexico that he was working on a Latin superhero he hoped to present at the end of last year. So far it did not come out, but maybe this is the seed of a future movie.
There is no doubt that "Black Panther" will be a success at the box office but, beyond the record revenue expected, it is a cultural phenomenon in the United States for its representation of black characters on the big screen.The 18th film of the Marvel universe, directed this time by Ryan Coogler and starring Chadwick Boseman, is the first in the lucrative franchise dedicated to a color superhero.Boseman plays Black Panther, also known as T'Challa, king and protector of the fictional Wakanda, which is a character in itself because it also challenges the stereotype of African countries: this is the utopia of a rich nation, never before colonized and that it studies receiving refugees from poorer regions.
Americans in the cast are Michael B. Jordan, Danai Gurira, Angela Bassett and Forest Whitaker; the English Daniel Kaluuya, of Ugandan descent, and Letitia Wright, who grew up in Guyana and the Mexican-Kenyan Lupita Nyong'o. According to Boseman, they gave him heart and soul because they knew it was a great opportunity. This was stated in an exchange with Twitter users on Monday.
With five million tweets, "Black Panther" is the film that has been written mostly in that social network in 2018, even more than the last episode of "Star Wars". Experts foresee that it will raise between 150 and 160 million dollars in its first weekend in the billboard of the United States, which is long since Monday is celebrated on President's Day.The film tells a story from a universal point of view but at the same time appeals to African-American culture. Beyond its box office, "Black Panther" could represent a turning point in the representation of blacks on the screen, and in the weight of color artists in Hollywood.
Time magazine put Boseman on the cover of his latest issue with the title: "Revolutionary Black Panther Power"African-American actor, screenwriter and director Ahmed Best told AFP that he has grown up reading comics, I loved Pantera Negra, it's a film I've been waiting for all my life.He is a statesman in a richer country, but he is also a physicalist, with an important spirituality, a strong connection with his ancestors, which is crucial in African culture.Best compared the Black Panther impact with the one that had in many young black people the presidency of Barack Obama.