Still, some box office analysts wonder if race could play a factor at the Chinese box office for Black Panther, especially after a Chinese poster surfaced that featured a masked T’challa (Chadwick Boseman) while the American poster features the character without a mask.
Here’s what James Li, co-founder of Beijing-based market research firm Fanink, had to say about the “want-to-see” votes cast for Black Panther by Chinese moviegoers.
For several years, the conventional “wisdom” about black-centric movies like Black Panther is that they don’t make too much money overseas, a myth that has most certainly been shattered by Black Panther.
In fact, in the week leading up to the Chinese release, Chinese ticketing website Mayona revealed that over 250,000 registered users had placed “want-to-see” votes for Black Panther.