‘Black Panther’ Wins Best Movie at BET Awards

Marvel Studios’ Black Panther has been awarded Best Movie at the BET Awards, aired live Sunday night at Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater.

Black Panther shared its category with Tiffany Haddish and Queen Latifah comedy Girls Trip, John Boyega and Anthony Mackie historical drama Detroit, period drama Mudbound, and Disney’s own Ava DuVernay-directed fantasy A Wrinkle in Time.

Leading ladies Lupita Nyong’o, who plays Nakia, Letitia Wright, who plays Shuri, and Angela Bassett, who plays Queen Ramonda, were all nominated in the Best Actress category, where the award ultimately went to Haddish.

Also nominated in the Best Actor category are Erik ‘Killmonger’ Stevens actor Michael B. Jordan, Prince N’Jobu actor Sterling K. Brown, W’Kabi actor Daniel Kaluuya, and T’Challa-slash-Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman. Also up for the award are Denzel Washington and Spider-Man: Homecoming star Donald Glover.

Its soundtrack, ‘Black Panther: The Album’ — produced and curated by Kendrick Lamar and featuring such artists as SZA, The Weeknd, Travis Scott, Khalid, and Vince Staples — is nominated for the BET Album of the Year award, where it competes against SZA’s ‘Ctrl,’ Jay-Z’s ‘4:44,’ Migos’ ‘Culture II,’ DJ Khaled’s ‘Grateful,’ and Lamar’s own ‘DAMN.’

The Ryan Coogler-directed blockbuster grossed more than $1.3 billion globally, selling $699.7 million in domestic ticket sales alone, making it the third highest-grossing earner domestically — putting it behind just Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($936m) and James Cameron’s Avatar ($749m) and just ahead of Avengers: Infinity War ($699.4m).

A cultural phenomenon, the groundbreaking success of Black Panther has pushed it into the top ten highest grossing films of all time, where it sits in ninth place.

In his acceptance speech for Best Movie, Coogler said his entry in the shared Marvel Cinematic Universe was “trying to capture the experience of being African on this planet.”

Coogler wants fans to “be proud of who we are and where we came from,” the director said before urging the audience to visit Africa, saying his time on the continent was a life-changing experience.

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