With "Black Panther" Black Women are No Longer Hidden Figures in Hollywood Blockbusters

By the end of its third weekend at the box office, “Black Panther” will become one of the ten highest grossing movies of all time. 

This is a remarkable achievement for any movie, and especially historic in this case since there is Black talent in abundance on BOTH sides of the lens. When it passes “Finding Dory” to enter the top ten list, it will be able to add at least one more accolade to its already long list of accomplishments. It will be the first movie on this list that proudly, and so prominently, feature Black women in a Hollywood blockbuster. 

Black actresses have been somewhat M.I.A. as main performers on the all time domestic grosses list for films. Out of the ten highest grossing movies ever, Black women have only been cast with major roles in four (one of the women appeared in two of the movies). Even more disheartening, those parts did not allow them to be seen for who they really are, in their natural beauty. They have literally been “hidden figures”. 

Lupita Nyong'O, Zoe Saldana, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw have each played characters in some of the biggest movie money makers ever. However, they each were relegated to parts that did not allow them the opportunity to appear in their own skin, instead appearing via computer effects. There is nothing wrong with doing this sort of work, but when opportunities are so few and far between for Black women in Hollywood films, compared to their counterparts, this situation is worth pointing out.  

Lupita Nyong'O as Maz Kanata in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens"

Academy Award Winner Nyong’O appears twice on this list courtesy of her role in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” (#1 on the list) and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” (#6 on the list) as Maz Kanata, a computer generated (CG) character. Lupita provided voice work and motion capture, but otherwise there is no way to tell its her under the special effects. 

Zoe Saldana as Neytiri in "Avatar" 

Zoe Saldana played Neytiri in “Avatar” (#2 on the list) who is an alien CG character with blue skin. Just like Lupita, Zoe provided the motion capture and voice work for this performance and did not show off her black skin any time during the movie. Saldana is no stranger to these types of performances, as she has worn green skin for her portrayal of Gamora, an alien assassin, in the Marvel Studios franchise “Guardians of the Galaxy”. To be fair though, she can be seen in the role of Lt. Nyota Uhura in the reboot of the “Star Trek” movie series, a character originally made famous by Nichelle Nichols in the original TV series. The new movie series is not on the list of top ten highest grossing movies of all time, so it would not be considered a blockbuster. 

Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Plumette in "Beauty and the Beast" 

Finally, “Beauty and the Beast” (#9 on the list) featured Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Plumette, a character trapped in the form of a feather duster. The movie does show Gugu’s human features eventually, but not until the movie’s climax.  She spent more time being seen as an inanimate object, than being seen as a Black woman in this role! 

None of this is to say that there is ANY correlation between hiding Black women, equals a movie will earn more money, but Daisy Ridley (“The Force Awakens” and “The Last Jedi”), Kate Winslet (“Titanic” at #3), Bryce Dallas Howard (“Jurassic World” #4), Maggie Gyllenhaal (“The Dark Knight” #7), Scarlett Johansson (“Marvel’s The Avengers” #5), Felicity Jones (“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” #8), and Emma Watson (“Beauty and the Beast”) all had opportunities to star or co-star in blockbusters and they were each seen exactly as they are in real life. Where were these opportunities for Lupita, Zoe, Gugu or any other Black actresses? These three beautiful, black women could not have starred as the female lead in any of these other movies and those films not had the same financial success? 

This is a problem more exclusive to Black women. Black men who feature in movies from this list such as John Boyega (“Star Wars: The Force Awakens and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”), Samuel L. Jackson (“Marvel’s Avengers”), Morgan Freeman (“The Dark Knight”), and Forest Whitaker (“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”) all appear in their own Black skin in these movies. 

The “Black Panther” showed us Black women as a General, Spy, Queen, and an Inventor in featured roles. This movie’s financial success does not excuse Hollywood’s poor track record for how Black women are displayed in its biggest films, but hopefully it highlights the issue, and leads to action that can remedy this problem. 

So this is another reason to root for the financial success of the “Black Panther”.

#WakandaForever