Success of “Black Panther” makes a statement about new film economy

Over the past decade, Marvel Studios has raised the bar for what audiences can expect in superhero films and franchises in general.

Marvel has created movies that have transcended the genre of “superhero” while displaying an unprecedented level of consistency. However, all of these films have fit in the mold of a Marvel movie, with a distinct tone and visual flare.

“Black Panther,” on the other hand, not only fits under the Marvel umbrella, but stands tall as its own film that could very well signal the future of the blockbuster.

The first thing to discuss regarding “Black Panther” is its unparalleled success at the box office: while expectations were reasonably high, the film managed to crush every single one of them. It raked in an estimated $235 million as of Monday, according to Box Office Mojo.

If the number seems huge, that’s because it is. “Black Panther” recorded the fifth highest opening weekend of all time, the highest for a stand-alone Marvel movie and even better than “Avengers: Age of Ultron.”

This movie crushed pre-established franchises with multiple entries. Why?

“Avengers” movies are big enough to draw huge crowds, and the individual, stand-alone movies can often feel like less important entries, however good they might be. What separates “Black Panther” and propelled it to this monumental-like status is the fact it truly stands alone from the Marvel canon.

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Sure, lots of people, including myself, saw this movie because it fits into the greater Marvel story we’re being told, but a lot of people have absolutely no recognition of this franchise. Many people saw “Black Panther” because it was a new type of big-budget blockbuster, and not everyone probably even knew it was associated with Marvel.

Watching the film, there are some nods and references to the series as a whole, but you would have absolutely no problem understanding the film if you hadn’t seen any of the other movies.

Thus, we have all of our Marvel fans coming out to see the film, and then many more people who just want to see the movie irrespective of its place in the franchise, creating a huge opening.

“Black Panther” is different for two reasons. The first, and most important and obvious, is its place in our cultural conversation. While we’ve had many big-budget films with black leads front and center, this film was different as it had nearly an entirely black cast.

More importantly, this film not only has a black cast, but it’s a film that specifically celebrates blackness. “Black Panther” could have gone the safe route and been about a superhero who just happens to be black, but Marvel took the brave approach and really made cultural identity central to the character and film.

While Hollywood has made movies for decades catered specifically to black audiences, they’ve often stuck to cheap family ensemble movies, such as the “Madea” movies, or thrillers. While these movies aren’t without their merits, the audience has been craving a big-budget film catered specifically to them, and “Black Panther” more than fills this void.

The success of the film shows that every group deserves to be catered to, and when done in a quality way, both black audiences and non-black audiences will come out in drove.

For a film that truly celebrates black culture and identity, it did not “scare away” any white audiences. If anything, this film was an opportunity for non-black audiences to catch a glimpse of the black experience, and create empathy, which is what the movies are all about.

Yes, it’s ironic that the company that made this movie for an underserved audience is Disney, but money speaks, and the accountants have taken note of this success.

“Black Panther” is a film that’s accessible to all audiences, which is another reason for its success. Yes, the film opened huge on Friday, but it only had small drops in revenue throughout the weekend, showing the power of word of mouth.

Not only is the film artistically satisfying, but for a movie in the genre of “superhero,” this is not really a superhero movie at all. There are fight scenes, sure, but the movie at its core is a family drama that owes more to “Hamlet” than it does to “Iron Man.” Here, not only will young action fans enjoy the movies, but older audiences and non-superhero fans can come to the movie and truly enjoy it.

There is a time and a place for fun action movies, and ultimately “Black Panther” was not the time and place. “Black Panther” was the time and place for a serious movie.

As we move forward from this weekend, we’ll look at “Black Panther” as a historic film in the history of the motion picture industry. A major studio purposefully put forward big resources to cater to an underserved audience, and it paid off.

We should expect to see more big budget films catering to non-white audiences, and there’s no reason that they should not eventually be the norm rather than the exception.

The most important thing, no matter who the audience, is that these blockbusters continue to be of high quality, like “Black Panther,” and then you can worry about who it is for.

All in all though, the success of this movie is nothing but a good thing, and I cannot wait to see what comes of it.

Erik Benjamin is a senior television, radio and film major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at ebenjami@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @cokezeriksugar.