If you have seen Black Panther more than once, hooray. Now get your coat, zip up your boots, and scrape up that popcorn money and go to see A Wrinkle in Time. Or at least buy the tickets for some of your people to go.
We must do all it can to support director Ava Duvernay as much as we supported Panther director Ryan Coogler; we have to come out in force to hold up narratives starring little black girls fighting forces of negativity and using the power of science to do it, just as much as we support a story about a catsuited superhero who reigns over a fictional country in Africa. We must do our best to support the artistic efforts of people of color in the entertainment industry, where so often the decision making about the stories that get made and who gets to direct and star in them have not traditionally been in our hands. Don't make Black Panther the exception to the entertainment industry's longstanding rules: Stories starring black characters don't sell tickets and entertainments by women directors don't sell tickets. Let's stop being so fickle and finicky, let's be consistent in our support for stories that reflect us. (And don't give me anything about the interracial parents in the story; this is what America looks like now, as the show says, This Is Us.)
While it is amazing and laudable to see the incredible worldwide success of Black Panther, a film directed by a 33-year-old Ryan Coogler in just his third major film project, I can't help but wonder about how and where we can make the same impact for other projects (and other causes). I realize that Black Panther cast a wider net in terms of audience: the casting, narrative, and settings appealed to people of African descent, but its superhero origin story pulled in all of those following figures in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and young and old of both genders and all races. It is going to outpace just about any other movie right now in terms of its reach. Meanwhile A Wrinkle in Time -- which earned $33.3 million in its first weekend, nothing to sniff at -- does not have the same broad and devoted target audience. It is a story for tweens and teens with a multicultural cast, telling a time-honored story that relies on science fiction and fantasy elements with the most elemental and limited of fight scenes and no R-rated language. It also a story starring a young black girl. The fact that it was made and helmed by Ms. DuVernay is worth celebrating ... by going to see it.
Yes, Ryan Coogler did a fantastic job with Black Panther, on multiple levels. He benefitted from a built-in audience hungry for superhero narratives, hungry to see the first big-screen black superhero, hungry for another good versus evil caped crusader brawl. The premise automatically drew people into theaters. Now we have to work a little bit harder for Ava, who was handed a project previously termed "unfilmable," that doesn't have the promise of violence, language, and kick-assery, that stars a character who could have been Wakanda's Princess Shuri a few years earlier and a continent away.
As I follow social media, I have seen significantly less excitement about Ava DuVernay's accomplishment as the first black female director to helm a $100 million film than I have about Ryan Coogler's box office coup ($1.07 billion in worldwide box office receipts and counting). But at a time some two years after #OscarsSoWhite, when we are starting to see change, we have to remain committed to our convictions. While folks bought their tickets weeks in advance and lined up for hours to see Black Panther, I'm still seeing a lack of enthusiasm and indifferent about catching DuVernay's screen epic. The answer to the online question of whether folks planned to see A Wrinkle in Time in the weeks leading up to the opening was often a curt, NO, or Waiting for NetFlix, or Not my thing. This was the same response for Taraji P. Henson's Proud Mary, which was not by any means terrible; it was a genre film starring a magnetic and capable actress who went out on a limb to produce the film herself. It's unfair.
Women in Hollywood already have a tough row to hoe, never mind being an African American woman in Hollywood. They fight to create their own projects, build up their own reputations and filmographies, and hope that each project is successful enough to give them the opportunity to do another. Getting scooped up to helm a major studio release is like grabbing a brass ring. And if Ava DuVernay does not make back the studio's money on this project, she will have to fight through a lot of negativity within the industry, in the media, and in public opinion when it comes time to direct again. Oh, We Gave A Black Woman Director A Chance But She Couldn't Deliver -- that will be the studio's narrative. The media is already having a field day with its brutal headlines: "Limping," "Disappoints," "Crumbles," "Well-Intentioned." This language will stop more audiences from spending time with the film -- which is not targeted to adults who read reviews! And it may be a long time before another woman of color gets a crack at another big-budget studio film of this magnitude. When this is pointed out in the media, some of you are going to be angry and upset, but it will be too late. We may have to wait a long time to see this happen again.
So I have to wonder, too, if when Hollywood -- as in politics -- tries to push and promote a woman, a black woman, into a place of power and acclaim, if we are really ready for it. But that's another thorny question.
Instead of seeing Panther for a third or fourth time, please take that cash and bring your kids, your neighbors' kids, and your siblings' kids to see A Wrinkle in Time. And not just the girls, either, bring the boys too. It's important.
