Black Panther dominates at box-office amid global praise

Tess Peterson, Staff Writer

According to Business Insider, Marvel’s newest superhero movie “Black Panther” has broken previous President’s Day box sales by banking $218 million on its first weekend in theaters. This isn’t hard to believe because this movie was as close to perfect as it gets.  With a stellar cast, backdrop, costumes, music, and crew I always knew this movie would not disappoint.

Chadwick Boseman led the cast by playing T’Challa, aka the Black Panther, aka the future king of Wakanda. Michael B Jordan was also among the leading men as the villain, Erik Killmonger, and cousin of Black Panther.  I don’t want to give too many things away about his character because it will certainly ruin the movie but let’s say there are some really cool, high tech and interesting battles sequences between these two leading men.

The main reason I loved this movie was that this version of the Marvel comic book story showed women in leading roles, and roles with power. This was all done by new and upcoming director Ryan Coogler who also co-wrote the script with Joe Robert Cole, Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby. In the original comic book, women didn’t even make an appearance!

The leading ladies were led by Angela Bassett whose character was the King’s (Black Panther) Mother Ramona and Oscar Award winning actress, Lupita Nyonyo, who played Nakia the King’s love interest. The most powerful women in this movie through quite literally was the Danai Gurira who plays Okoye the lead warrior in Wakanda.  The roles are also spearheaded by Letitia Wright who is the princess of Wakanda and the King’s little sister, but she so much than just that. She is also a tech Queen in her own right leading her brother in almost all of his action sequences and battle.

Young people have already embraced this film with expectations that its opening President’s Day weekend would top $200 million.  One of the most interesting outcomes from Black Panther is that the film’s hero is beloved as a hero, not a “black” hero.  This furthers the trend among millennials and college students to see a person based on their character, not judged on their race or skin color.

You will be on the edge of your seat as you watch this action-packed movie with a great storyline and ending that sets up future Black Panther movies to come.

 

Tess Peterson can be reached at [email protected]