Black panther

• Black Panther


  A film text that could appear from 2021 onwards in the Edexcel A-level Media Studies exam component one section B in the industries questions
• Black Panther will not be on the paper in 2020, instead you could be asked about Straight Outta Compton
• Marvel Studios


  A subsidiary company of Walt Disney Studios, famous for working within a huge number of Marvel comic related films, this is the 17th film within this particular franchise of superhero movies
• Marvel Studios


  • Part of a shared universe along with several other superhero movies
  • Vertically and horizontally integrated, can do their own distribution and marketing in-house
  • Have a huge number of facilities, resources and money
• Marvel Studios being part of the Walt Disney conglomerate


  Means they were able to use Disney to distribute their film
• Disney's 360 degree marketing campaign


  The idea that in no matter what direction you turn, you should be confronted with images of their movies
• Disney's marketing for Black Panther

  1. Released a huge number of marketing materials (posters, trailers, social media pages)

  2. Released merchandise (action figures, toys) with Hasbro

  3. Worked with Lexus to release limited-edition cars

  4. Kendrick Lamar released a soundtrack for the film

  5. Trailers were cleverly distributed (shown during Super Bowl ad break)
• Black Panther being released during Black History Month


  Allowed the film to be marketed as tied to black history and pride of cultural heritage
• Crowdfunding to allow young black children to see the film


  • Online crowdfunding sites were set up to raise money to allow young black children to go to the cinema and see the film
• Disney's partnership with New York Fashion Week

  Created a fashion show using clothes inspired by the Wakandan clothes in the film, called "Welcome to Wakanda"
• Posting the Black Panther trailer on YouTube

  It was viewed 19 million times in the first 24 hours, enabling the audience to market the film for them by liking and sharing
• Disney's use of social media to market Black Panther

  1. Used hashtags and posts on Twitter, Black Panther became the most tweeted about film ever

  2. Cast and crew did live Q&A sessions on Twitter
• Actors from Black Panther appearing on chat shows and breakfast TV


  To talk about the film and market it to national audiences
• Black Panther cast appearance at Comic-Con

  Did a panel where they sat in front of audiences and answered questions, targeting super fans
• Snapchat filter for Black Panther

  • Where people could use the filter on their faces and photos, targeting young audience on Snapchat
• Disney owned Marvel Studios but agreed to have minimal creative influence over the products that Marvel made
• Marvel started off as a comic book company and has been involved in making a large range of comic-book products including comic books, graphic novels, TV programs, films, and animations
• Marvel owned the rights to many of their characters developed through their comic books, and sometimes sold the rights to other companies
• Marvel retained the rights to Black Panther because they knew they wanted to make a film about the character
• Marvel has found a successful formula of superhero movies based on shared universes, which makes their films less risky and more mainstream and profitable
• Factors that make Black Panther a low risk, high success film

  • Based on a successful existing franchise
  • Part of a shared universe with millions of fans worldwide
  • Made by two of the biggest companies in the world, Marvel and Walt Disney
  • Had a high budget
  • Featured famous actors
  • Based on a popular genre, superhero movies
• Factors that make Black Panther more risky or less mainstream


  • Black Panther is one of the lesser known Marvel characters
  • The film has an almost entirely black cast, which is still seen as a risk
  • The film offers a variety of positive roles for black actors and actresses, which is unusual
• Previous films with black actors in lead roles tended to be more typically social realist style films or very overtly comic roles
• Black Panther offers positive, powerful, and dominant roles for women, which is unusual for superhero films
• The mainstream media has often ignored issues of race and discrimination, and Black Panther tackled these social issues
• Disney has been trying to change the way they represent ethnicity and race in their films in recent years, with releases like Moana and Coco
• 12A certificate


  You can go see the film on your own if you are 12 and over, or be accompanied by an adult if under 12
• There was controversy over the 12A certificate for Black Panther due to the amount of violence in the film
• The BBFC justified the 12A certificate because the violence was fantasy-based and backed up by a strong moral code
• Film companies have to ensure their films are appropriate for a range of countries with different regulations, which can impact the editing and marketing
• The Black Panther trailer focused on stunt sequences and combat scenes without showing anything graphic, to keep it suitable for a family audience
• The Black Panther posters targeted different audiences, with a specific poster for the Chinese market that covered the actor's faces
• Some people argued the Chinese poster was an attempt to conceal the fact that the lead actor was black, to make the film more marketable in China