| Black Panther | Chadwick Boseman |
|---|---|
Chadwick Boseman died one year ago today and there’s still something that needs to be discussed with his passing.
He was diagnosed with stage three colon cancer in 2016, which progressed to stage four and in that process performed in four movies which required him to be in top physical shape. Even making sure to attend press releases and market the film, while looking so good no one noticed.
He also changed history with Black Panther.
Before that movie, the rule was black actors couldn’t lead a major box office role unless Will Smith. Even Will Smith for almost every film would have a white co-star.
Black Panther was the first movie where the cast was near entirely black and it made 1.3 billion at the box office.
More money than any of the Iron Man films.
More money than any of the Captain America films.
More money than any of the Thor films.
The guy was the face of the film which is to date the highest grossing Marvel movie that’s not an Avengers film.
He’s also the face of the highest of the highest grossing movie ever with a black lead actor and primarily black cast.
But there was the challenge of what happened to him after the film was made.
Above, I put up two posters.
The first is the poster America saw, which was Chadwick Boseman.
The second is the poster China and many other parts of the world saw.
A photo which was then editing on his mask so poorly it looked less like his super hero costume and more of a punishment.
Black Panther made 1.3 billion in 2018.
Antman & Wasp made 623 million the same year.
Black Panther in China made 105 million.
Antman & Wasp made 121 million.
19.5% of Antman & Wasp success was China.
Black Panther was just 8%.
And here’s how to show this is a huge deal.
Black Panther at the American box office made 700 million dollars.
Avengers Infinity War made 678 million.
Infinity War made 2 billion dollars at the box office, with 360 million made in China.
Black Panther, if it did better in markets where there is a more visible racism issue, it would have made over 2 billion dollars and it’d today be the third highest grossing film of all time before inflation adjustments.
And this “mask” Disney put on Chadwick Boseman wasn’t the only time they did something like that.
John Boyega who was a main character in the Star Wars sequel trilogy had his character edited from a lot of movie scenes in the Chinese release and other markets. He also for the first film wasn’t even shown in the Chinese poster, despite being in the American one.
I’ve written before about the growing movie industry in China and reliance on that for American studios to make money could be a problem for Black Panther.
I don’t think I want to write on that again, but I think one year after Chadwick Boseman passed away, Disney can give him an apology for this.
This was a guy who would film scenes at 4 am while battling cancer for them. It’s the least they can do.
