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“U.N.I.T.Y, That’s a Unity” See What Happens When We Support Each Other?

Jaleana Hammond

“U.N.I.T.Y, That’s a Unity” See What Happens When We Support Each Other?

Audience members at a "Black Panther" screening — Some audience members at the “Black Panther” screening in Grand Blanc, Michigan (Image by: Bronte Wittpenn/Flint Journal)

In my Monique voice, “I love us for real.” In the past year, we came out, and showed out at the movies, and made these “black films” break records.

Marvel’s “Black Panther,” has been breaking all types of records in the past couple months, and I’m here for it.

Just this past week, the movie broke Titanic’s record for the third highest grossing film in U.S history, with grossing $659 million in the U.S alone. Not to mention, they already earned the title of the highest grossing superhero movie in U.S history.

Last week, reports came out that Black Panther will be the first cinema shown in a theater for last 35 years in Saudi Arabia. That’s right, Saudi Arabia just ended their 35-year ban on cinemas for the remarkable, “Black Panther.”

Many celebrities like Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, Zendaya, T.I, Lil Yatchy, and Offset, joined together to buy hundreds of tickets so that people in their hometown can go see the movie. We all wanted the film to do well, but “Black Panther” proceeded what we could have imagined.

Diddy tweeted the day the movie dropped, “Men lie, women lie, numbers don’t!!! Everybody go see #BLACKPANTHER!!!!! Let’s show our power at the box office!!!!!” And he’s absolutely right, we made this happen.

Let’s not forget in the summer, “Girls Trip,” smashed the box office, making $140.1 million, and turned Tiffany Haddish into a Hollywood superstar. I mean just a few months ago, she presented at the Oscars, and was one of the most talked about her celebrity there. And, her being the the first black stand-up female comedian to host, “SNL,” this past November.

They already announced the sequel to both movies, and if “we” show up and support, then it’s mostly definitely going to break records.

Also, just last February, we all showed up to go see “Get Out,” directed by Jordan Peele. That movie had only a budget of $4.5 million, and ended making $255 million at the box office. The movie even earned Peele his first Oscar, for “Best Original Screenplay,” and he was the first black person to do so.

Currently, Tyler Perry’s “Acrimony” is doing well at the box office, with $32.7 million in the second week.

Now that we proved “our” dollar does matter, we have to go out and support these movies below with black leads/cast.