Black Panther Flashcards
Black panther is the
17th film in the marvel cinematic universe. The highest grossing film franchise in history
It was directed by
Ryan cooler (creed) and released in February 2018
The film shows us the
Ficitional African kingdom of Wakanda which has avoided European colonisation and acheived technological superiority through the use of chemical called vibranium
T’challa (chadwick boseman) must fight
A number of foes who oppose him becoming king after the death of his father
Black panther t’challa first appeared in
Fantastic four #62 released July 1966
The film was produced by
Marvel studies a famous comic book brand that is also subsiary of the Walt Disney company.
Black panther was extremely succesful
Broke records for the highest opening weekend in the USA and also performed well globally.
How much has the film grossed worldwide
Over 1 billion worldwide with 48% in non US countries
How much has the film grossed worldwide
Over 1 billion worldwide with 48% in non US countries
It was also one of the only superhero films to be nominated
For a best picture academy award
It won 3 Oscars for
Costume
Production design
Original soundtrack
Historical context
From 15th - 20th century
European powers colonised African countries and exploited the continent for both resources and slave labour. Africans were branded savages by the European invaders their cultures dismissed as primitive
During the early 20th century African Americans attempted to establish a
New black cultural identity with movement such as harlem renaissance
The black panther party October 1966-82 was a
Political activist group established initially to provide armed monitoring of police behaviour and prevent police brutality in the US. It was controversial with many panthers being killed in confrontation with police
Cultural context
The science fiction blockbuster and superhero genres have traditionally been dominated by
White male characters. In the 1990s actors like will Smith and Wesley sniper did break ground playing characters. But recent action and especially superhero films have rarely featured African-American actors in their lead roles
For the last 15 yrs marvel films have
Topped the box office. Though these regularly featured non white characters they were often sidekick eg. The falcon in captain America films.
There have been very few superhero films with a
Female lead wonder women and captain marvel being exceptions
Black cinema has traditionally consisted of
Issues based social realism eg. The films of spike Lee or have been Arthouse/prestige pictures eg. Moonlight 2016
Blade 1998 is one of the few superhero films to have a
Black main character
In 2016 the #oscarsowhite meme drew
Attention to the lack of diversity in the films nominated.
Us/European media tend to portray Africa as an
Underprividdlefd developing country focusing on civil wars famine and terrorism. The victorian branding of Africa as the dark content hasn’t evolved very far
Very few feature films from Africa
Reach the western mainstream and films like blood diamond 2006 and captain Philips 2013 though featuring sympathetic African characters still portray Africa as a dangerous and barbaric place
Barack Obama 2009-2019
America’s first African American president. Created many initiatives that aided minority and women’s group. From universal healthcare, to college anf entreneurship access funds for the under priveledgdd
Donald Trump the current president has vowed to reverse
Many of these winning support from mostly white ring Americans who consider such initiatives unfair.
In addition Trump has
Insulted other countries including many in Africa and refused to condemn violent racist attacks in American cities.
Worrying statistics about the number of
Unarmed people of colour shot by us police led to us police led to the black lives matter campaign which has utilised social media to raise awareness of an issue that has often been ignored by mainstream media
Black panther was produced by marvel studios who became a subsidiary of Disney in
2008 they are also the films distributor which makes them a good Examole of vertical integration
Marvel has historically sold options on
Individual characters or comic book titles eg.spiderman to TV and then to paramount (who is still partially owned by Sony) black panther was one of those developed fully by marvel In 2009 a new team began developing t ‘t’challa and lesser known characters
In early 2000z marvel studios began
To produce films starting with blade 1998 and x men films 2000
When Disney bought marvel they agreed to
Minimal creative influence over marvel products.
In 2013 marvel signed a deal with
Streaming service Netflix to develop TV series for 6 more characters including daredevil and punisher who had already been made into films. This may have caused conflict with Disney who has their own streaming channel and in 2019 Netflix cancelled their marvel shows
Disney the films distributor adopted a
360 degree consumer experience. The concept was to make the film into a cultural event across a variety of media and platforms and raising its profile from being another superhero film into something politically resonant
Who did they have brand association with
Hasbro toys
Lexus cars
Html interescope records
Black panthers teaser trailer were shown between
Nba games and a spexuL coloboeation with Lexus called long live the king was shown during the superbowl.
The films release also harnessed a
Political element to add gravitas. Crowd funding projects to buy under privileged children a ticket won support from celebrities. Film was released during black history month
There was also a welcome to
Wakanda catwalk show at new York fashion week and features in numerous fashion magazines. On opening weekend 44% of ticket buyers were female
Disney are adept at identifying
Nuanced demographic groups and strategies for targeting them. Many of their products are intercultural they represent one cultural tradition but in a way that resonated with audiences from other cultural ethnic backgrounds.
Disney has used recent nieslen research to challenge
Conventional ideas about the ethnic diversity in mainstream media. 53% of Americans live in a multicultural background. 67% indicated that they were enthusiastic about encountering and experimenting with diverse cultures.
The bbfc
Classifies film and video releases in the uk. However uk councils have the power to overrule bbfc decisions and rate film differently.
The therrotival release of BP gained a
12a certificate
The film like very recent marvel films
Feature very little romantic drama and no sex or nudity. It is fairly violent but the combat is statistical and there is strong code to most if conflict. Film was classified as pg 13 in USA
The teaser trailer was released in
June 2017 by Disney sister Channel ABC during MBA finals. Within 24 hrs It had been viewed 89 million times on YouTube
Just before release BP was the most tweeted about
Film of 2018 with more than 5 million tweets globally. In mid match 2018 it became the most tweeted ajoit film ever with 35 million tweets
Hesmondhalgh
Successful formula to maximise audience minimise risk. Media conglomerate operate across a range if cultural industries by considering the film released part of synergy
Hesmondhalgh film has very low risk
For producers. The character of t t’challa and wakanda were introduced captain America civil war 50 years ago.
Having such an afrocenrtric film could be seen as
Commercial risk especially outside the USA and Africa
Curran and seaton
Films much celebrated diversity challenge cure and Seaton idea that domination by small number of instituons limits creativity and variety
The conglomerate model
Marvel as a separate brand to Disney offer a more complex pattern of ownership than might c and s describe
The dominance of
Marvel in the Sci fi genre limit opportunities for alternative riskier independent films in this genre
