Black Panther shows Hollywood that black movies travel well, Latest Movies News - The New Paper
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Black Panther shows Hollywood that black movies travel well

Marvel's Black Panther opened as the most successful movie with a primarily non-white cast of all time, industry data showed on Tuesday, raising hopes for a new era of storytelling by film-makers and actors of colour.

Its performance overseas brought the global total to US$426.8 million (S$564 million), prompting analysts to conclude it had put to bed for good an old Hollywood adage that black movies never make the grade outside of North America.

Yet to open in the lucrative Chinese and Japanese markets, its achievements include the second-largest four-day total, behind only Star Wars: The Force Awakens and just ahead of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

The film has been backed to the hilt by Disney, benefiting from a US$350 million production and marketing budget and months-long publicity campaign.

This bucks the trend of US studios only committing modest budgets to black-specific movies, out of a belief that white audienceswill not be interested. - AFP

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