Hey, remember Black Panther? It’s one of those Marvel movies everyone’s talking about these days. Chadwick Boseman? Lupita Nyong’o? “Wakanda Forever”? Made enough money to make Jeff Bezos jealous? Of course you remember it, because it was awesome. The only bad thing about it was that you had to stop watching it eventually, but now even that caveat has been removed, because Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger announced today that Black Panther is returning to theaters at participating AMC locations in celebration of Black History Month. And get this: tickets are free.
Your Best Picture fav could never.
Today we are excited to announce #BlackPanther will return to the big screen to celebrate #BlackHistoryMonth from Feb 1-7 at participating AMC theaters. Tickets are free! We will also donate $1.5M to @UNCF to make the dream of higher education a reality for more students.
— Robert Iger (@RobertIger) January 28, 2019
And that’s not all. Disney’s all donating $1.5 million to UNCF, an organization that gives scholarships to black students and provides funding the scholarships at 37 historically black colleges and universities. $1.5 million isn’t a lot of money for a movie that raked in almost a billion and a half dollars globally but, hey, it isn’t nothing.
Of course, putting Black Panther back in theaters has the added bonus of reminding Academy voters that a lucrative, record-breaking and insanely popular critical darling also happens to be a candidate for this year’s Best Picture.
Black Panther entered the Oscar race as something of a longshot, but its odds are steadily improving, particularly after it took home the SAG award for Best Ensemble. Vice wasn’t particularly well-loved by critics, both Green Book and Bohemian Rhapsody are mired in scandal, and BlackKklansman and A Star Is Born have failed to generate much buzz in the awards leading up to the Oscars. That leaves The Favourite (a bit of an oddball), Roma (the closest thing to a frontrunner in this very strange year) and Black Panther.
Roma is a terrific movie, but the Academy has a famous bias against Netflix originals, which could clip its odds. Of course, the Academy has a proven history of turning its nose up at cape flicks too, so it’s really any movie’s game at this point, but Marvel Studios clearly feels like it has a shot. Go see it again in theaters and see if you feel the same way.