TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Black Panther has made it to the big screen, and is expected to break records this weekend.
According to Disney, ABC's parent company, Thursday's premiere showings of the film brought in more than $20 million at the box office. The film has been largely anticipated by the African-American community throughout the country.
The Black Panther movie, much like Marvel's other films, began as a comic book series. It was written in the 1960's when African-Americans were fighting for their civil rights.
The Black Panther was the first black super hero, and he became an expression of "afrofuturism," which is similar to science fiction, but steeped in African traditions and black identity.
Although the Black Panther is a fictitious character, co-creators, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, tackled real life challenges faced by the African-American community. The struggles have been updated for modern times, but they are still a part of this movie.
"I think it is going to open the eyes of a lot of people," said Mark Wilkens, who owns Fallout Comics. "In America, there's a lot of people feel like we've made a lot of social progress in the last 40, 50 years, and we're good now. The reality is, we need to keep making more social progress."
This film isn't just opening the eyes of social injustice in the country, it's bringing a sense of pride to the African-American community. For the first time ever, they have a predominately black cast starring in a superhero movie directed by an African-American.
For the older generation, this has been a long time coming. As for the African-American children, they now have superhero to look up to that looks like them, and that makes all the difference.
"When they're able to go see a movie where all the characters look like them, it certainly has them to believe that they definitely can grow up and be anything they want to be and do anything they want to do," said Delaitre Hollinger, the first vice president of the Tallahassee branch of the NAACP.
In this day and age, where social injustices are still present, it's important for the younger generation to have that positive role model to look up to.
WTXL has been told that Black Panther is "amazing," and has the perfect Marvel blend of seriousness and comic-relief, but theaters are likely to be packed.
The Challenger Learning Center has sold out the 7 p.m. showing. Managers expect to fill all 250 seats for the 9:45 p.m. show as well.
