‘Black Panther’ a major breakthrough for SC native, especially at the box office

It has been some kind of weekend for Chadwick Boseman.

The South Carolina native is the leading actor in the top movie in the country, was featured on the cover of another high-profile magazine and even found the time to participate in the NBA’s Slam Dunk Contest.

Not bad for the 41-year-old from Anderson.

After months of promotion and anticipation, “Black Panther,” starring Boesman in the title role, opened. And it did the near impossible in this day and age – it lived up to the hype.

In the film, Boseman plays T’Challa, a prince from the fictional African country of Wakanda, and the masked superhero. It was both critically praised and a blockbuster at the box office, earning a record-setting $192 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters.

The reviews of critics measured on rottentomatoes.com gave Boseman’s movie an impressive 97 out 100 percent score. Moviegoers agreed, making “Black Panther,”the fifth-highest-grossing debut ever, not adjusting for inflation.

In estimates Sunday, Disney predicted a four-day holiday weekend of $218 million domestically and a global debut of $361 million, according to The Associated Press.

It was just another barrier to be broken by a film and a star that’s all about blazing new trails. Boseman is the first leading actor in a current Marvel Cinematic Universe movie.

“It’s a sea-change moment,” Boseman said to Rolling Stone. “I still remember the excitement people had seeing “Malcolm X.” And this is greater, because it includes other people, too. Everybody comes to see the Marvel movie.”

Boseman has done his part to create as wide of an audience as possible. He attended premieres of the movie across the world the past few weeks, including one in Los Angeles. That happened to be the site of this year’s NBA All-Star Game, and accompanying All-Star Saturday.

So it was easy for the kid who played high school basketball at TL Hanna to jump on another opportunity to promote “Black Panther.” And what could be more fun than the dunk contest?

Boseman didn’t actually dunk, but he was sitting courtside at Staples Center, when he presented Indiana Pacers star Victor Oladipo with the Black Panther mask.

Wearing the mask, Oladipo dunked and got a score of 40 out of 50 for his efforts. While he didn’t win the event, he and Boseman provided the signature moment that will likely be remembered more years from now.

There will be lots to collect and reflect on from this whirlwind. In addition to all the promotional material generated by Marvel, Boseman was recently featured on the cover of Time Magazine.

If being the cover subject for one iconic magazine wasn’t enough, Boseman is adding another to his résumé. He’s the main attraction on the latest issue of Rolling Stone. He was also on one of the variety of covers on the latest Essence magazine, all featuring “Black Panther” stars.

It might seem too good to be true. A living dream. But Boseman is grounded and is making the most of the opportunity to make real impacts.

“You might say that this African nation is fantasy,” Boseman told Time. “But to have the opportunity to pull from real ideas, real places and real African concepts, and put it inside of this idea of Wakanda – that’s a great opportunity to develop a sense of what that identity is, especially when you’re disconnected from it.”

Boseman might be more accustomed to the pressure of accurately representing real people in biographical accounts of their lives. The Anderson native has portrayed Hall of Fame baseball player Jackie Robinson who broke baseball’s color line, musical icon and South Carolina native James Brown and Thurgood Marshall, the first black justice on the Supreme Court.

“I feel honored to have taken on those roles and to get to learn from embodying them and trying to walk in their shoes and get lost in it,” Boseman told the AP. “Certainly there’s a lot to learn from Jackie Robinson. There’s a lot to learn from James Brown. There’s a lot to learn from Thurgood Marshall. I would like to say that some of those qualities have infused themselves into me at this point.”

Fans won’t have to wait long to get to see Boseman play Black Panther again. He’ll reprise the role for this year’s “Avengers: Infinity War,” and again in 2019 an untitled Avengers movie.

You’ll even see Boseman at the Academy Awards Ceremony. He isn’t nominated – maybe next year? – but was recently announced as one of the presenters for the 90th Oscars.

It’s understandable that Boseman said he wants to find a “quiet place and get some rest because we’ve been on this tour for a minute.” But for those who can’t wait to see him again, take a look at some of his recent posts on Twitter as he’s chronicled the wild promotional tour.

This story was originally published February 18, 2018 at 8:01 PM with the headline "‘Black Panther’ a major breakthrough for SC native, especially at the box office."