A white writer is being dragged after calling Black Panther “Hollywood’s worst nightmare.”
In an opinion piece for Forbes, Scott Mendelson wrote that the film’s success was “terrifying” because it was owning the box office “at the expense of other would-be event movies.” Mendelson referred to the other films as “victims” because they are being “steamrolled” by Black Panther.
Mendelson continued by adding that the Marvel film “represents the worst nightmare of an entire industry now dedicated to a near-weekly stream of glorified event movies.”
“Black Panther is so big, so good and so ‘one size fits all’ in its appeal that it has turned an entire slate of would-be blockbusters into counterprogramming,” he wrote.
It’s a poor choice of words for a piece that initially seemed to celebrate the film’s success. Users on social media were quick to demand clarification, calling out Mendelson for blaming the Ryan Coogler-directed film for other films’ lack of success.
Mendelson has responded to a few people on Twitter, explaining that maybe the headline was a bit misleading. He tweeted to one person, “It’s a cheap headline, even if it clearly worked. Was going for succinctness, not incitement.”
The story’s headline has since been changed from “Box Office: ‘Black Panther’ Has Become Hollywood’s Worst Nightmare” to “Box Office: ‘Black Panther’ Should Terrify Every Hollywood Studio.”