When Black Panther released to theaters in February, it turned the box office on its head.
As the second highest-grossing film of 2018, the third highest-grossing film ever in the United States and the ninth highest-grossing film of all time, the Marvel movie was an undeniable masterpiece.
It raked in $169,363,580 outside of the United States and Canada in its opening weekend and $646,221,327 overseas in its entire release, contributing to a grand $1,345,059,695 total gross worldwide—making it the fourth highest-grossing Marvel film ever. Simultaneously, it shone a bright light on movie studios’ biased and inaccurate thinking.
“Studios will very often tell you that movies with a black lead are not going to work overseas,” Boseman continued to the magazine. “So I think that was the thing for me—this means something everywhere in the world. I know at that point it could actually change how studios respond to our movies. You can no longer say definitively, ‘Black movies don’t work [outside of the U. S].'”
The actor noted that had been “attempted” with him. “I don’t need to say. This is not a moment where I went, ‘Ha ha, I told you so.,” he told Esquire with a laugh. “I don’t need to say that, because they know what they did.”
“People don’t know the kinds of battles you have to go through when you’re in that position [as a black movie star]. So if I’m saying I’ve gone through those battles, I can only imagine the battles that people before me have gone through,” he said.
“Will Black Panther change this?…I can’t say that. It’s up to us to claim that thing, and it’s up to the other side to recognize the truth in what just happened. As long as the work is of quality, there should be no reason something shouldn’t sell.”
The Summer issue of Esquire hits newsstands on June 5.
Source: E! News
