‘Black Panther’ Isn’t Just a Great Movie; It's Great Marketing

SMITH BRAIN TRUST – It’s not often that a film smashes box office expectations in quite the way that Marvel Studio’s “Black Panther” has. But it’s not often that a superhero film gets so many things so right – from the screenplay, to the casting, to the marketing, says Henry C. Boyd III, clinical professor of marketing at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Boyd saw “Black Panther” on its opening weekend with his daughter, Gigi, after months of watching the hype surrounding the film. It was one of those rare movies, he says, where the product lived up to its hype.

The Black Panther isn’t a new character. He’s a half-century old. And Boyd has been a fan for decades. “Marvel has all of these amazing characters, some of them on the A roster and some of them on the B roster,” Boyd says. “The Black Panther, outside of certain circles, was always on that B roster.”

So, how did Marvel take a character from that B-roster level, and remake him into a box office phenom? “They marketed this brilliantly,” Boyd says. “They announced that they were making this movie almost three years ago.”

In certain enclaves, where Black Panther was already beloved and larger-than-life, there was immediate chatter. “There was this excitement. People were saying, ‘Hey, they’re really going to do it. They’re going to put this movie together,'" Boyd says in an excited whisper.

Black superheroes have rarely been featured as the leading character in Marvel movies. Before Black Panther, there was Blade, of course, and Falcon, but he was mere sidekick to Captain America. Black Panther would be different.

As months went by, Boyd says, Marvel Studios would release just a little more about “Black Panther.” Then in July 2017 at Comic-Con International, the studio released a trailer. It received an almost-unheard-of standing ovation.

“All the while, the buzz is building and building and building,” Boyd says. “It was so well executed.”

Despite not premiering during the busiest cinema weekends, the film’s box office returns were impressively strong, shattering numerous box-office records in the United States and abroad, particularly in some African countries. In its first week, the film grossed more than $427 million in global ticket sales. In the United States it set a February box-office record.

Much has been made of the film’s release date in mid-February – not timed for the summer or Christmas holiday blockbuster season, when audiences traditionally make time to flock to movies. Boyd says the timing was “impeccable,” coinciding with Black History Month.

“The launch pad for this film was always going to be the African American community,” Boyd says. “They knew that if the film created enough of a buzz with the African American community, it would draw in all kinds of folks.”

And it did. According to analysis by ComScore, the audience demographic for “Black Panther” was 37 percent black and 35 percent white during the film’s opening weekend.

“If you are very selective about your target market,” Boyd says, “and you have a great product, and you win over that target audience, they will tell other people. They become your acolytes. And that’s what happened here.”

Also helping to drive expectations for the film were the director and cast. The film is directed by acclaimed black director Ryan Coogler and features African American A-listers Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, plus, Boyd says, “some of the vanguard of established black stars” such as Angela Bassett and Forest Whitaker.

“Mad props,” Boyd says, go to writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Jack Kirby for creating the Black Panther character back in 1966. “They created this character who is a black male and who is of African descent. And at that time – we’re talking the 1960s – that was amazing, in terms of how bold that was.”

They gave the character a vivid backstory. The Black Panther, whose real name is T’Challa, becomes king and protector of the people in the highly civilized, wealthy, technologically advanced African country of Wakanda, after the death of his father, King T’Chaka. T’Challa is strong, powerful and intellectual. “It’s not just that T’Challa has these powers and he is super strong, but he is also a genius. He gets a PhD in physics from Oxford,” Boyd says.

The depictions, critics have said, make the film resonate on a level seldom seen before, benefitting from its largely positive portrayal of African cultures and values. In Hollywood films, Africa is so often depicted as filled with poverty, corruption and tragedy.

The film’s representation of women also resonates. Unlike in so many superhero films, the female characters in “Black Panther,” have authoritative roles. They counsel T’Challa after his rise to power, they protect him as part of the all-female army. T’Challa’s sister, Shuri, is a positive female STEM role model, a scientist doing vital technological work on Vibranium (the strongest substance on Earth and found only in Wakanda).

“She’s STEM all the way,” Boyd says. “With this character, once again, you have to applaud. The filmmakers, they got it right. They have captured something that will inspire generations of young African American women.”

In the United States, Canada and elsewhere, community groups, churches and wealthy celebrities have bought up blocks of cinema tickets on opening weekend, giving them to families and young people who couldn’t easily afford to see the movie. “When you see that, you have to think: Wow. They really got it right,” Boyd says.

Boyd hopes the charity and enthusiasm send a message to Hollywood, especially as it relates to the superhero genre. “I would like to think it will say to Hollywood, ‘You have audiences that you have underserved.’”

“Because Hollywood can make these movies, and if they do it properly, they can make a lot of money,” Boyd says. “You can do it because it’s the right thing to do. You can do it because of a sense of obligation. And you can do it because it’s profitable.”

There are messages embedded in the film that Boyd describes as “very powerful and very uplifting. And they describe what we must do as a society to move forward,” Boyd says.

There are lines in every good movie that stay with you. For Boyd, it was the line from T’Chaka to his son, T’Challa. It’s about preparing the next generation to lead wisely, and Boyd says, it speaks volumes about this film’s place in movie history.

“A man who has not prepared his children for his death has failed as a father.”