re: Black Panther is now the highest grossing superhero movie of all time

Sure are a lot of people up in this thread downplaying why it made so much money.

Doesn't really matter to me why. Doesn't even matter to me how much money it made. I thought it was a pretty good movie. Not great by any means, but then again I wouldn't classify many superhero movies (if any) as great.

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Black Panther has always been a minor character that no one outside of comic readers even knew of.

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This isn't true.

1) His name is Black Panther, that alone gives him notoriety.
2) He out-kicks his comic book appeal because of his historical importance, much like Wonder Woman.
3) He's had a high-profile, successful solo title for a few years now with Coates writing

Of course he isn't Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, but he's easily in the Tier 2 of super-heroes, no less known than Iron Man prior to his movie. He was less visible, but more historically important and people knew that.

2 Years Ago

LINK

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The sales numbers for that month’s comics just came in, and not only was Black Panther — drawn by Brian Stelfreeze and colored by Laura Martin — the top-selling comic of the month, it’s also the top-selling comic of this calendar year. North American retailers ordered an estimated 253,259 copies of the issue, while the second-place finisher (for the month as well as the year) only snagged 175,322.

That number doesn’t include European sales, nor does it include re-orders that come in after April, meaning the final number will likely be closer to the 300,000-copy mark that Marvel announced in March. The numbers are a wee bit misleading, as they only count how many copies retailers ordered, not how many copies were actually purchased by readers. Unfortunately, this is the only industry statistic available and it’s generally a good indicator of interest in a comic.

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It is supposedly a very good movie, although I have not seen it, but reality is that it’s success has more to do with it being a black super hero moreso than being a good/great movie. That said, kudos to Marvel for finding that demographic. There are plenty of people that will watch this movie, whether they are black or not, just for the point of saying they supported a movie about black super heroes.

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I haven't seen it yet either. But, somehow, it seems like overkill, the public spending a billion-plus dollars just to see black people on a screen. Maybe there's another reason contributing? I mean, if it can't stand on its own merits, you'd think people would just turn on BET and save themselves the time, trouble, and money. But who knows? Maybe you're right and this is the most brilliant manipulation of demographic figures the world has ever seen.

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Of course it’s not the only reason it did so well was because it was mostly an all black movie. But that was definitely one of the main reasons. There were a number of blacks (not just in the US) and other minorities that saw the movie who generally don’t like super hero stuff. Many of them saw it as iconic in a way.

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Perhaps the fact that I was primarily mocking him for coming to these grand conclusions (that he obviously wanted to come to) despite admitting he can't even speak for the actual quality of the movie since he never saw it got lost in there.

Either way, it's pure speculation on peoples' parts. Perhaps audiences genuinely liked the movie regardless of the social dynamics. Why do we not accuse "The Avengers" of being primarily successful because of the largely white cast? Lacking actual evidence either way, it's no more self-evident in that case than in the case of "Black Panther."

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It is supposedly a very good movie, although I have not seen it, but reality is that it’s success has more to do with it being a black super hero moreso than being a good/great movie.

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This is impressive no doubt, but when you account for inflation, it still trails the avengers by a bit. This movie really did have a perfect storm of a lot of things going on for it to do this well.

By most accounts, it's another solid marvel movie, but not the best marvel movie. Hats off to the marketing team too. They knew how to play social media in this current climate like a fiddle.

It's going to be hard for IW to top this especially during their timing of release.

The AI loved Avengers because of Vision.

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Oddly enough it’s also the lowest grossing movie in terms of concession sales.

The dollar stores across the street from the theaters are doing very well, however.

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Yeah I'm calling BS on that whole statement. You are claiming they have bought out the theatre every day for over a month in the tiny town of Opelousas, La. So that a handful of schools in the Parish can watch it?

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ive seen black leaders waste money on less.

First it was "this movie won't make all that much b/c white people won't see it and black people will only go once if at all."

Now it's "well of course it made a shitload of money b/c all the black people and comic books fans went to see it."