'Black Panther' and Wakanda Mentioned During Oscars

Black Panther may not have been eligible for any awards as it was just released back in February, [...]

By Nicole Drum

Black Panther may not have been eligible for any awards as it was just released back in February, that hasn't stopped it from dominating this year's Academy Awards -- at least in jest.

During the video opening for the Oscars telecast, which was done in a black and white, old-timey throwback style designed to look and feel like a newsreel from Hollywood's golden age, Chadwick Boseman was shown walking the red carpet while a voiceover humorously referred to him as the king of Wakanda while taking a few jabs at politics as well.

"There's Chadwick Boseman, the king of Wakanda!" the voiceover said. "Imagine that! A country with a black leader. Wouldn't that be swell?"

You can check out the video above.

The jokes didn't stop with the video introduction, either. During his opening monologue, host Jimmy Kimmel acknowledged Black Panther's massive box office success with a sly joke about the Marvel Cinematic Universe film's dominance, saying that they were all there to celebrate all of the movies that were being crushed by Black Panther at the box office.

And crushed is actually a pretty accurate term for Black Panther's box office performance. The film just closed out another powerful weekend lifting the film to a worldwide gross of $897.7 million. Of that massive sum, $501.1 million comes from domestic receipts. Numbers such as these put Black Panther on track to become the fifth Marvel Cinematic Universe movie to cross $900 million worldwide, following The Avengers which totaled $1.52 billion, Avengers: Age of Ultron with $1.4 billion, Iron Man 3 with $1.2 billion, and Captain America: Civil War at $1.15 billion.

And while Black Panther won't be winning any Oscars tonight -- the film's opening fell outside of time frame for contention for this year's awards -- that doesn't mean the movie won't shine next year. Some are already speculating that Black Panther may well get some Oscar love next year and in some major categories as well.

Black Panther is now in theaters. Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Avengers: Infinity War on April 27th, Ant-Man and the Wasp on July 6th, Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 5, 2019, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020.

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