Marvel's "Black Panther" opens today, and given the decline in black superhero movies as Marvel and DC have rebooted old franchises, some audiences are understandably treating the...
| |  | | | | Alyssa Rosenberg on culture and politics | | | | | | Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther/T'Challa in Marvel Studios' "Black Panther" movie. (Matt Kennedy/Marvel Studios ) | Marvel’s “Black Panther” opens today, and given the decline in black superhero movies as Marvel and DC have rebooted old franchises, some audiences are understandably treating the movie’s release as a major event. Actress Octavia Spencer announced plans to buy out a screening of the movie in Mississippi so African American kids who might not otherwise be able to afford the movie could see it on the big screen. DC Comics fans set aside their cross-company rivalry to raise money to buy “Black Panther” tickets for Bronx schoolchildren. The movie is being treated as a community event writ both large and small; it’s something people want to see together, in groups, as a token of what the movie could mean more broadly, especially if it does exceptionally well at the box office. | | Obviously, I stand outside of this particular community experience, although I can imagine groups of my girlfriends and me going to see “Captain Marvel” and “Black Widow” together when they’re released. But groundswells of enthusiasm such as this always make me think about my moviegoing community. | | To a certain extent, moviegoing is a solitary experience even if you’re going to the theater with other people. A multiplex is not your living room, and you’re generally expected to be quiet enough during a screening that you won’t disrupt other patrons, although at genre movies such as “Black Panther,” a certain amount of cheering has come to be expected. A definitive part of the experience is surrendering yourself to what’s happening on screen; disconnecting from the world outside the theater, from the internet and even from the people sitting next to you; and just letting yourself be absorbed. | | | But since I frequently go to critics’ screenings with Act Four contributor Sonny Bunch, Reason editor Peter Suderman and some combination of our spouses, I do often think of moviegoing as an experience that’s defined that particular social community for me. We have routines — the places we go to dinner before or grab a drink afterward, the kind of joke we know we can lean over and make to the others during the movie, the areas in the theaters where we prefer to sit. My conversations with Peter and Sonny are pretty much always on my mind when I sit down and write about something I’ve seen. | | So in advance of “Black Panther,” I’m curious to know about your moviegoing community. Who do you go with? What rituals do you have? And is “Black Panther” going to be different for you in some way? Let me know, and we’ll discuss your answers and the movie next week. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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