Forbes Writer Says 'Black Panther' Success Should "Terrify" Studios

Source: Marvel Studios / Marvel Studios

The overwhelming success of Marvel’s Black Panther has been largely seen as a good thing, considering the cultural shift it is helping to promote within the film industry. However, a Forbes writer said that the movie’s popularity and market impact should “terrify” film studios and Black Twitter reacted in kind.

Forbes contributing film writer wrote:

But here’s the terrifying part (for the competition, and potentially the industry as a whole): The MCU flick is doing this at the expense of other would-be event movies. Black Panther has pulled these kinds of legs and this level of domestic box office by beating movies that presumed themselves to be tentpoles. When Titanic did its thing 20 years ago, the “victims” were mostly smaller-scale studio programmers that weren’t necessarily do-or-die releases for their respective studios.

Yes, I too mourn the box office failures (never an absolution…) of Fallen, Dark City, Primary Colors, Deep Rising and Wild Things. But one of the reasons Titanic sailed away with the first one-third of 1998 was the relative lack of “big” movies in the opening months of the year. But what we’ve seen thus far with Black Panther… this is different. This is an entire pre-summer slate of would-be event movies getting steamrolled by one very big tentpole.

While Mendelson’s language probably wasn’t meant to be offensive or pointed, he should have used some caution considering the racial and political climate of the country and how it connects with a blockbuster film with a mostly Black cast.

Black Twitter got in their digs after the piece went live this week, and we’ve collected some of the discussion below and on the following pages.

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Photo: Disney/Marvel Studios

https://twitter.com/Zakiyyah6/status/976226198400446465