How Black Panther may be the future of Marvel films

Black Panther poster

UPDATE (Feb. 19): Black Panther’s U.S. box office for Friday-Sunday ended up at $201 million, Exhibitors Relations said on Twitter. 

ORIGINAL POST (Feb. 18): Black Panther, the newest Marvel Studios film, is being celebrated as a huge moment for black America. Examples include The New York Times Magazine (“a vivid re-imagination of something black Americans have cherished for centuries”) and The Guardian (“The film is already being regarded in the US as a positive force for social change”),

It may also be a sign of Marvel’s future.

Black Panther’s estimated Friday-Sunday U.S. box office is $192 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

That figure would be (unadjusted for inflation or higher ticket prices), the No. 2 U.S. opening for Marvel. Here are the other movies in Marvel’s top five (all of which eventually topped $1 billion at the worldwide box office):

Marvel’s The Avengers (2012): $207.4 million.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015): $191.3 million.

Captain America: Civil War (2016): $179.1 million.

Iron Man 3 (2013): $174.1 million.

Of the Marvel top five, Black Panther (starring Chadwick Boseman) is the only one not to include Robert Downey Jr. playing Tony Stark/Iron Man.

It was 2008’s Iron Man where Marvel began making its own films, instead of licensing the rights to others. The movie became the building block upon which Marvel built is movie universe. Four years later, with Marvel’s The Avengers, the notion of a “shared universe” became big business.

Some have wondered whether Marvel could withstand Downey’s eventual departure. The actor turns 53 in April and it’s not the kind of thing you can keep doing forever. Other major Marvel actors such as Chris Evans (Captain America) and Chris Hemsworth (Thor) have reached the end of their contracts.

What’s more, the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War and an unnamed Avengers film in 2019 is intended as a kind of finale for Marvel films up to now. So, a decade after its first movie, Marvel Studios has reached a transition point.

Black Panther already is a popular and critical (a 97 percent “fresh” score on the Rotten Tomatoes website) success.

Beyond that, Black Panther shows that Marvel is capable of extending itself beyond its first decade of making movies. Black Panther seems destined to join Marvel’s billion-dollar club (it’s at $361 million globally as of this weekend). The movie also is broadening Marvel’s appeal. We’ll see what happens.

Nolan says he’s not directing Bond 25

Christopher Nolan

Director Christopher Nolan has said he’s not directing Bond 25.

“I won’t be,” Nolan said on a broadcast of BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs on Feb. 18. “No, no categorically. I think every time they hire a new director I’m just rumored to be doing it.”

There has been a fan theory expressed on internet message boards that Nolan had committed to Bond 25 but it was being kept under wraps until after the Oscars ceremony on March 4.

Nolan is one of the nominees for Best Director for last year’s Dunkirk. Under the fan theory, the thinking is an announcement that Nolan is directing Bond 25 might ruin the director’s chances.

In December, the Archivo 007 fan webite said it was “more than likely” that Nolan would direct Bond 25. The site cited two sources it didn’t identify (one from the U.S. and one from the U.K.) as saying Nolan already was working on the 007 project.

Nolan has said he’s a fan of James Bond films, something he repeated in the BBC Radio 4 interview. The director said in a 2017 interview with Playboy magazine that he has talked to Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson of Eon Productions “over the years.”

“I deeply love the character, and I’m always excited to see what they do with it,” Nolan told Playboy. “Maybe one day that would work out. You’d have to be needed, if you know what I mean. It has to need reinvention; it has to need you. And they’re getting along very well.”

Many fans have always been intrigued about what his take on 007 would be like. Director Sam Mendes has said Nolan’s Batman films were an influence on 2012’s Skyfall.