Over the long weekend, as moviegoers embraced President Donald Trump’s big screen avatar in the form of Marvel’s Black Panther, Trump’s worldview and healthy form of nationalism won the gold at the box office.
In just four days, Black Panther brought in an incredible $235 million, which crumbled Deadpool’s previous Presidents’ Day weekend record of $152 million.
The pro-Trump extravaganza was also the fifth biggest opening weekend of all time, behind only the first Avengers movie and the latest chapters in the Star Wars and Jurassic Park franchises. Incredibly, Black Panther beat every other superhero and blockbuster movie out there, including Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the Dark Knight trilogy, and even Avengers: Age of Ultron.
With a lot of help from the boot-licking entertainment media, Marvel’s marketers did a fantastic job selling Black Panther as something it is not — a first, as something historic.
We have already had all-black movies going back to the early 70s with Shaft and Pam Grier.
We have already had black directors directing black action heroes in the form of Gordon Parks and Shaft, John Singleton and the Shaft remake, Michael Schultz directing Taimak in The Last Dragon, Singleton and Too Fast Too Furious, F. Gary Gray atnd The Fate of the Furious.
We have had black superheroes going back 25 years to Meteor Man, Steel, and Spawn.
We have already had black Marvel superheroes in the form of the Blade Trilogy — which launched in 1998.
On top of those mentioned above, Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Sam Jackson, Wesley Snipes, Eddie Murphy, Jim Brown, Dwayne Johnson, Vin Diesel… All are popular black action heroes whose movies have made billions and broke box office records over the last 20 years.
At the time, the reason these actual firsts did not feel like firsts is because we had pretty much become a colorblind society. No one noticed these guys were black. We didn’t care. We only saw each other as fellow Americans.
Unfortunately, in this racially divisive era of Woke, we are required to obsess over our differences. We are also required to start over again at Year Zero so that the left can try to sell the provable and absurd lie that racist America still has ground to break.
Nope. Been there, done that.
Hey, I am thrilled Black Panther got made. It is a good not great movie. And as I said in my review, I hope this success opens the door to more black actors getting more work. But forty-five years ago I was sneaking into Foxy Brown, movies, so please shut up about how my buying a ticket to Black Panther is some sort of revolutionary act.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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