Page 16 - Florida Sentinel 2-20-18

Entertainment
Kendrick Lamar-Produced ‘Black Panther’ Soundtrack IS #1
‘Black Panther’ RULES At The Box Office At $387M Worldwide
The King of Wakanda rules the world with box office numbers being understated at $387M. Cast members of ‘Black Panther’, Winston Duke, Chadwick Boseman, Lupito Nyong’o and Michael B. Jordan and its director Ryan Coogler.
The Kendrick Lamar-cu- rated Black Panther soundtrack has debuted at No. 1 on the Bill- board 200 chart, according to Billboard.
The album, which features music from SZA, The Weeknd, Travis Scott, and more alongside Kendrick, has earned 154,000 equivalent album units in the week between February 9-15, according to Nielsen Music. Of that 154,000 units, 52,000 represent tradi- tional album sales.
The release marks the biggest first week for a soundtrack since Suicide Squad: The
Kendrick Lamar is #1 category with the soundtrack for ‘Black Panther’.
Album.
Black Panther opened Thurs-
day night, becoming the top-
grossing film in history by a Black director (Ryan Coogler) withalargelyBlackcast.
PBS Documentary That Examines History Of HBCUs Airs Tonight; FAMU Featured
After much anticipation, Black Panther officially opened nationwide on Friday, and has shattered box-office records. But exactly how much has Black Panther made so far? We’re glad you asked.
The King of Wakanda is King at the international box of- fice with a stunning $169M in 48 markets through Sunday. That puts Disney/Marvel’s Black Panther at a global debut of $361M. Including Monday’s domestic estimate, the epic film’s box office intake rises to $387M.
Other records broken include the biggest opening for an African-American director, the top-scoring superhero film on Rotten Tomatoes (97 percent) and biggest February bow, sup- planting previous champ Dead- pool, which took in $152.2 million over the four-day Presi- dents Day weekend in 2016.
Playing in 4,020 theaters,
Black Panther was fueled by a diverse audience. According to comScore, 37 percent of ticket buyers were African-American. Caucasians made up the next largest group (35 percent), fol- lowed by Hispanics (18 per- cent). That sort of demo breakdown is unheard of for a marquee superhero tentpole. On average, African-Americans make up about 15 percent of the audience for such fare.
The Marvel Studios movie follows King T’Challa, aka Black Panther, as he returns home to the fictional African na- tion of Wakanda. When enemies threaten his sovereignty, T’Challa must protect his home from potential war.
Of course, none of these box- office predictions are a total sur- prise. We’ve been hyped about the movie since the trailer first dropped in June, and the buzz has only continued to grow since then.
Stanley Nelson’s latest ex- amines the story and necessity of historically black colleges and universities.
Historically black colleges and universities are the brick-and- mortar testaments to the African-American legacy of de- termination, struggle and an un- willingness to compromise the educational and economic po- tential of a people.
Stanley Nelson’s latest documentary, “Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities,” ex- amines the timeline of these in- stitutions that comes to us in a time that’s yielding serious dis- cussions about inequities in the American educational system, as well as questions about the con-
The relevance and history of HBCUs is captured by award- winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson.
tinued relevance of HBCUs in the modern era.
As such, Nelson’s 90- minute piece, airing Monday (tonight) at 9 p.m. on PBS’s “In- dependent Lens,” is both a pow- erful educational piece and, in an oblique fashion, an argument in favor of the important role HBCUs play in terms of nurtur- ing upcoming generations of African-American professionals.
Black schools such as More- house, Howard, Spelman, Florida Agricultural and Me- chanical University (FAMU) and many others are havens of sup- port and cultural inclusion for students whose educational ex- perience too often begins a sense of feeling marginalized in ele- mentary and high school.
The Late Notorious B.I.G.’s 5th Album Sells A Million Copies
Notorious B.I.G. was mur- dered in 1997, however, his music lives on. The late rap icon’s 2007 ‘Greatest Hits’ re- cently became his fifth million- selling album in the U.S.
The set sold 4,000 copies in the week ending Feb. 8 (up a whopping 339 percent), accord- ing to Nielsen Music, pushing the album’s sales to 1.003 mil- lion.
The album’s big sales surge is owed to how the title was sale priced for only $4.99 in the iTunes Store during the tracking week.
All five of The Notorious B.I.G.’s solo albums have now
Notorious B.I.G. and manager/producer Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.
each sold at least a million copies. His best-seller is Life After Death (5.36 million), fol- lowed by Ready to Die (3.87 mil- lion), Born Again (1.96 million) and Duets: The Final Chap-
ter (1.17 million). Life After Death, Born Again and Greatest Hits all reached No. 1 on the Bill- board 200. Ready to Die peaked at No. 15, and Duets: The Final Chapter topped out at No. 3.
PAGE 16 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018