“I loved this movie,” wrote the former First Lady on Monday.

“Because of you, young people will finally see superheroes that look like them on the big screen,” she said.

And it seems she’s not alone in loving the movie – with box office takings far higher than anticipated.

Revised studio estimates put its US and Canada grosses over the four-day President’s Day weekend at more than $235m (£168m).

That’s miles ahead of the $120m (£86m) the film was predicted to take over the same period as recently as last month.

Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins joined Mrs Obama in celebrating the film’s achievement.

Based on the Marvel comic book character, Black Panther revolves around the ruler of a fictional central African nation who moonlights as a costumed crime-fighter.

The film has drawn praise for having a black director – Creed’s Ryan Coogler – and a predominantly black cast, the majority of whom speak with African accents.

According to Fortune, Black Panther’s success is “dispelling industry concerns that a superhero movie revolving almost entirely around black characters [can] resonate with a general audience”.

“No studio can say again, ‘Oh, black movies don’t travel, overseas interest will be minimal,” box-office analyst Jeff Bock told the publication last week.

February is not generally used as a launching pad for “tentpole” blockbusters, which tend to be held back until after the Oscars and the end of “awards season”.

Recent years, however, have shown there is an appetite at this time of year for other kinds of material.

Deadpool, the last superhero film to open in North America over the President’s Day weekend, notched up an impressive $152m (£108m) when it debuted in 2016.

Black Panther, though, surely received an additional boost from positive buzz, rave reviews – it currently has a 97% rating on reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes – and huge social media awareness.

Last week, Variety reported that the film had become the most tweeted-about movie of the year so far, having amassed more than five million tweets on the social platform.

“I haven’t ever worked on a film where people were this excited about it before we even rolled a camera,” Coogler told the BBC earlier this month.

Other factors in the film’s success may include a crowd-funding initiative to raise funds to buy cinema tickets for children.

According to the GoFundMe website, the #BlackPantherChallenge has so far raised more than $400,000 (£285,000) to enable children to see the film in a movie theatre.

Actress Brie Larson, star of forthcoming Marvel release Captain Marvel, is among many to champion the scheme.

Black Panther’s stars, meanwhile, have their own theories on why the film has struck such a chord with audiences.

In a post on Instagram, actress Lupita Nyong’o paid tribute to her co-star Chadwick Boseman and his “quiet, confident, regal nature”.

“We celebrate BREAKING BOX OFFICE RECORDS with @blackpanther for many reasons, but chief among them is because we had you as our king,” she went on.

Britain’s Daniel Kaluuya, meanwhile, has suggested the film’s success lies in audiences seeing it in cinemas rather than using illegal means to access it.

“If you complain a lot about visibility and representation you have to pay, you have to support it when we do it,” he told 1Xtra presenter Dotty earlier this month.

“You have to support whatever you want to see. Ryan Coogler and us lot, we’ve been given support and we need the support back.”

Black Panther’s success extends beyond America’s borders. The film took $25.3m (£18m) in South Korean cinemas during its opening week – more than anywhere outside the US.

The fact a key action sequences was filmed in the Korean city of Busan is understood to have driven its popularity.

Closer to home, meanwhile, Black Panther has recorded the biggest February opening at the UK and Ireland box office.

Since arriving in British cinemas a week ago, the film has made £17.7m – which, according to The Guardian’s Charles Gant, is more than such previous Marvel releases as Thor and Ant-Man made over their entire UK runs.

–

Source: BBC

The post Michelle Obama commends Black Panther producers appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The Q&A at an architecture convention in Orlando came days after her husband made his first public comments as ex-president at a Chicago university.

Mrs Obama, who left office with a 68% approval rating (10% more than her husband) said “politics is tough.”

“It’s all well and good until you start running, and then the knives come out.”

It’s hard on a family, she said. “I wouldn’t ask my children to do this again because when you run for higher office, it’s not just you. It’s your whole family.”

But “public service will always be in our blood”, she added.

Although Mrs Obama had played down her political ambitions before, while first lady, this is the first time she has done so since the election campaign, when she was widely viewed as the most effective weapon in the Democratic armoury.

She did not openly discuss President Donald Trump by name during the 45-minute event, but she did make mention of “the new president” who marks his 100 days in office on Saturday.

“So far, so good,” said Mrs Obama when asked about her own family’s last 100 days, which included a yacht holiday near Tahiti.

She described how her dogs become confused by the sound of a doorbell, which is not a sound you hear at the White House. And now her two daughters can open their windows.

She also described fighting back tears when leaving the place where she had lived the longest in her entire life, saying: “I didn’t want to have tears in my eyes because people would swear I was crying because of the new president.”

Until this week, the Obamas had kept a low profile since the election, but they are each writing separate memoirs in a book deal worth $40m.

Mr Obama has drawn criticism from fellow Democrats over a $400,000 (£309,000) upcoming speaking engagement to a Wall Street investment firm.

Progressive senator Elizabeth Warren, who is seen as a possible 2020 presidential candidate, said she was “troubled” by Mr Obama’s decision.

–

Source: BBC

The post Michelle Obama: ‘I won’t run for office’ for my children appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The two men have had almost no one-on-one contact previously. Trump, a Republican, led the “birther” movement that questioned Obama’s U.S. citizenship and has pledged to overturn the Democrat’s signature policy achievements after he takes office on Jan. 20

Obama campaigned vigorously for Trump’s Democratic rival, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and called Trump both temperamentally unfit for the presidency and dangerously unprepared to have access to U.S. nuclear codes.

Obama and Trump will seek to put their tensions behind them, at least for the cameras, during their Oval Office meeting.

First lady Michelle Obama will also meet privately with Trump’s wife, Melania, in the White House residence.

On Wednesday, Obama said that despite his major differences with Trump, he would follow the lead of former Republican President George W. Bush in 2008 and ensure a smooth handover to Trump.

“Eight years ago, President Bush and I had some pretty significant differences, but President Bush’s team could not have been more professional or more gracious in making sure we had a smooth transition,” Obama said. “So I have instructed my team to follow the example that President Bush’s team set.”

–

Source: Reuters

The post Obama, Trump meet at White House to begin transition of power appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.