T’Challa Shows Off in Marvel Studios’ Black Panther Rise TV Spot
Tickets for Marvel's Black Panther went on sale last night right before the College Football National Championship game. After a shoutout from Kendrick Lamar at halftime, the latest TV spot has T'Challa showing off the beautiful imagery of Black Panther.
It's been truly amazing watching the promotion for this movie ramp up. Typically films that don't start white men don't get A-list promotion and marketing. But that's not the case here. Disney and Marvel Studios have pulled out all stops to make sure we all know when this movie comes out. And it seems to be working. While it's too early to get exact numbers, just from anecdotal evidence, I was seeing people reporting whole rows (and entire showings) sold out already in the first day. I know of people that have already committed to seeing the movie at least three times. It's an amazing feeling. As you may know, we're hosting a couple of viewings ourselves (Tickets for our screeners go on sale this Friday) and I know we're not alone.
And that's where I feel a little bit of sadness. As much as I love the fact that as black people we have so much joy and excitement about finally getting a chance to see ourselves represented, it's kinda sad that it's taken until 2018. For the record, this isn't just about comic book movies. To be honest, I feel as though when it comes to the big movies/TV shows like Star Wars and Star Trek or comic book movies, we've seen a lot of positive progress from studios. Sure, they've made mistakes *cough* Iron Fist *cough* but the progress is clear. But what about other genres and films? It still feels sad that in 2018 we're still talking about "Historic First" for black people. Other marginalized groups are facing the same issue. Hopefully this will blow open the doors and make the gatekeepers in Hollywood realize they've been leaving money on the table by ignoring us. Even better, those gatekeepers will be ousted and we'll see true inclusion in the industry.
