Black Panther

• Ken Loach


  • Well known for being left-wing, liberal, and exploring problems in Britain caused by government policy
  • Staunchly a Labour supporter and anti-Conservative
• Premiere


  Held in Newcastle, rather than London, to signify the film's engagement with the North of England, which tends to be more left-wing
• Black Panther is the 17th film in the 'Marvel cinematic Universe' (the highest grossing film franchise in history)
• Marvel Studios


  A subsidiary company of Walt Disney Studios, one of the largest conglomerates in the world that owns a huge number of other companies
• Marvel Studios


  • Vertically and horizontally integrated, can do their own distribution and marketing in-house, have a huge number of facilities, resources and money
• Disney


  Distributed the Black Panther film, provided their big budgets, experience, teams and global distribution
• 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. Posters

  2. Trailers

  3. Social media pages

  4. Merchandise

  5. Actors on chat shows and in magazines

  6. Synergetic products with other companies
• Synergetic products


  • Action figures and toys with Hasbro
  • Limited-edition cars with Lexus
  • Soundtrack with Kendrick Lamar
• Trailers


  Edited to show the best and most exciting parts of the film, made it clear Black Panther was part of the shared Marvel Universe
• Trailer distribution


  • Officially shown in the ad break of the Super Bowl
• Releasing Black Panther during Black History Month

  Allowed it to be marketed as tied to black history and pride of cultural heritage
• Crowdfunding


  • Online campaigns to allow young black children to see the film
• Fashion show


  • Disney created a fashion show called "Welcome to Wakanda" at New York Fashion Week
• Social media marketing


  Posting trailers on YouTube, using hashtags and live-streaming on Twitter, enabled audience to market the film for them
• TV appearances


  • Actors went on chat shows and breakfast TV
• Comic Con appearance


  • Actors did a panel for fans
• 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(Hesmondhalgh)

  • 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(Hesmondhalgh)

  • 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
• Black Panther offers positive, powerful, and dominant roles for black actors and actresses, as well as strong female characters, which is appealing to audiences looking for something different
• Disney has been trying to change the way they represent ethnicity and race in their films in recent years, with the release of films like Moana and Coco
• Black Panther was given a 12A certificate in the UK by the BBFC, which means those under 12 can watch it if accompanied by an adult
• There was some controversy over the 12A certificate due to the amount of violence in the film, but the BBFC argued it was in line with the Marvel franchise
• Film companies have to consider regulations in different countries when distributing their films, which can impact things like the age certificate and marketing materials
• The poster for the Chinese market covered the actor's faces, which some saw as an attempt to conceal the fact the lead actor is black to make the film more marketable in China
• Directed my Rayan Coogler and released in February 2018
• Black Panther(T'Challa) first appeared in the fantastic four #62, released in July 1966
• Produced by Marvel studios, a famous comic book brand that is also a subsidiary of Walt Disney Company
• Broke records for the highest opening weekend in the USA, and also preformed well globally
• The film grossed well over $1 billion world-wide, with 48% in non-US countries
• During the early 20th century, African-Americans attempted to establish a new black cultural identity with movements like the Harlem Renaissance
• The Black Panther Party (October 1966-82) was a political activist group established initially to provide armed monitoring of police behaviour and prevent police brutality in the US

  ->it was very controversial with many Panthers being arrested or killed in confrontations with the police
• Science fiction blockbusters and superhero genres have traditionally been dominated by white, male characters and in some action films they have rarely featured African-American actors in lead roles
• Many of Marvels film have regulary features non-white characters as side kicks instead of main roles (Falcon), and have been very few female superheros/female leads
• Black cinema has traditionally consisted of issue-based social realism (Hidden Figures)