Disney Studios stops theaters from screening Black Panther • Hacker News Board

Re: Disney Studios stops theaters from screening Black Panther

#21

Post by colejohnson66 » Tue, Sep 01, 2020, 7:15 PM UTC

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #18

tessierashpool wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is inflammatory/provocative nonsense which serves no purpose except to derail discussion. please delete it.

The content of a post affects the comments it brings. A post describing the technical and design decisions behind gab.com would bring tons of comments about how racist the site is, and would probably be flagged. I consider Black Panther to be racist, and I consider it important to bring that up(since nobody else does).

A movie set in Africa is racist for having a majority black cast? That’s just having an accurate cast demographic; It would be racist to have a cast representative of the US population (ie. a majority white cast).

Re: Disney Studios stops theaters from screening Black Panther

#22

Post by TheAdamAndChe » Tue, Sep 01, 2020, 7:22 PM UTC

colejohnson66 wrote: post #21

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The content of a post affects the comments it brings. A post describing the technical and design decisions behind gab.com would bring tons of comments about how racist the site is, and would probably be flagged. I consider Black Panther to be racist, and I consider it important to bring that up(since nobody else does).

A movie set in Africa is racist for having a majority black cast? That’s just having an accurate cast demographic; It would be racist to have a cast representative of the US population (ie. a majority white cast).

This would be a good point, except for the double standard that is being applied to most movies nowadays. Almost all big movies based sometime in the past are being cast with a cast that is not representative of the racial outlook of the times. New WW2 movies are extremely diverse(edit: er maybe not).

This wasn't some small movie trying to be historically accurate. This was a massive big-budget movie that made the conscious decision to hire an almost entirely black cast(edit: and crew) for political reasons.

Such racial discrimination needs to be pushed back against in my opinion, especially as the racial makeup of the country continues to change. Just as the cultural changes of the 70's echo through today, the cultural changes that we put in place now will have ramifications for decades. I don't want it to be a culture of racial discrimination.

Re: Disney Studios stops theaters from screening Black Panther

#23

Post by majewsky » Tue, Sep 01, 2020, 7:32 PM UTC

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #22

colejohnson66 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A movie set in Africa is racist for having a majority black cast? That’s just having an accurate cast demographic; It would be racist to have a cast representative of the US population (ie. a majority white cast).

This would be a good point, except for the double standard that is being applied to most movies nowadays. Almost all big movies based sometime in the past are being cast with a cast that is not representative of the racial outlook of the times. New WW2 movies are extremely diverse(edit: er maybe not). This wasn't some small movie trying to be historically accurate. This was a massive big-budget movie that made the co…

In your opinion, what would be a good reason to have a majority black cast in a big-budget movie?

Re: Disney Studios stops theaters from screening Black Panther

#24

Post by gamblor956 » Tue, Sep 01, 2020, 7:37 PM UTC

marcosdumay wrote: post #19

gamblor956 wrote: post #8

Disney didn't "stop" theaters from screening Black Panther this past/upcoming weekend. Like most Disney films, it's not available for second-run showings. It's long-standing Disney policy, and has effected films from the Fox film archives as well. ( https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/20... )

Well, that is stopping theaters from screening the movie. Ok, they do do that by policy, not by exception. But the title is correct.

No, they never stopped the theater from screening the movie.

They simply never gave them permission to do so in the first place.

Re: Disney Studios stops theaters from screening Black Panther

#25

Post by Hamsdance » Tue, Sep 01, 2020, 7:39 PM UTC

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #22

colejohnson66 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A movie set in Africa is racist for having a majority black cast? That’s just having an accurate cast demographic; It would be racist to have a cast representative of the US population (ie. a majority white cast).

This would be a good point, except for the double standard that is being applied to most movies nowadays. Almost all big movies based sometime in the past are being cast with a cast that is not representative of the racial outlook of the times. New WW2 movies are extremely diverse(edit: er maybe not). This wasn't some small movie trying to be historically accurate. This was a massive big-budget movie that made the co…

Which WW2 movies are those? I don't know of any that have cast minorities as Nazis or even depict mixed race combat units

Re: Disney Studios stops theaters from screening Black Panther

#26

Post by gamblor956 » Tue, Sep 01, 2020, 7:41 PM UTC

monadic2 wrote: post #16

gamblor956 wrote: post #8

Disney didn't "stop" theaters from screening Black Panther this past/upcoming weekend. Like most Disney films, it's not available for second-run showings. It's long-standing Disney policy, and has effected films from the Fox film archives as well. ( https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/20... )

Can you elucidate the material difference?

Theaters require a license to show a movie.

Disney does not generally grant licenses to theaters to show its films second-run (meaning after their initial box-office run) except as part of re-release initiated by Disney. They make extremely limited exceptions to this policy; the Rocky Horror Picture Show is basically the only film in the Disney/Fox vault that they allow to show second-run.

In this case, the theater announced they were going to show Black Panther without actually bothering to get the license ahead of time, and Disney did not make an exception to their policy.

Re: Disney Studios stops theaters from screening Black Panther

#27

Post by TheAdamAndChe » Tue, Sep 01, 2020, 7:44 PM UTC

majewsky wrote: post #23

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would be a good point, except for the double standard that is being applied to most movies nowadays. Almost all big movies based sometime in the past are being cast with a cast that is not representative of the racial outlook of the times. New WW2 movies are extremely diverse(edit: er maybe not). This wasn't some small movie trying to be historically accurate. This was a massive big-budget movie that made the co…

In your opinion, what would be a good reason to have a majority black cast in a big-budget movie?

I misspoke and your post made me realize it, thank you. I edited the comment.

I somewhat understand a majority black cast. The target demographic may be black, and people like to see people like themselves in movies.

On top of that, they may be trying to be accurate to historical or regional details.

But to have both cast and crew as almost entirely black? I don't see the utility in that other than to make a political statement.

Re: Disney Studios stops theaters from screening Black Panther

#28

Post by gamblor956 » Tue, Sep 01, 2020, 7:46 PM UTC

hinkley wrote: post #11

gamblor956 wrote: post #8

Disney didn't "stop" theaters from screening Black Panther this past/upcoming weekend. Like most Disney films, it's not available for second-run showings. It's long-standing Disney policy, and has effected films from the Fox film archives as well. ( https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/20... )

I hate the term, "The Disney Vaults". Am I right in thinking this policy started under Eisner, or has it been going on longer? Nobody else locks their old content up like Fort Knox, Disney.

Disney has used the "vault" for theatrical showings since 1944, when they reissued Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, though the last film actually re-released in theaters was The Lion King almost a decade ago. (Nowadays, a film is "released" from the vault to a reissue of home media (like Bluray).

Eisner was mostly responsible for changing vault releases to home media sales (like VHS or DVD) instead of theatrical releases.

Re: Disney Studios stops theaters from screening Black Panther

#29

Post by gamblor956 » Tue, Sep 01, 2020, 7:48 PM UTC

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #22

colejohnson66 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A movie set in Africa is racist for having a majority black cast? That’s just having an accurate cast demographic; It would be racist to have a cast representative of the US population (ie. a majority white cast).

This would be a good point, except for the double standard that is being applied to most movies nowadays. Almost all big movies based sometime in the past are being cast with a cast that is not representative of the racial outlook of the times. New WW2 movies are extremely diverse(edit: er maybe not). This wasn't some small movie trying to be historically accurate. This was a massive big-budget movie that made the co…

Trying to remember the diversity in the most recent Hollywood WW2 movies: THERE WASN'T ANY.

1917 was completely white. Dunkirk had two minority characters, both in extra roles. Jojo Rabbit had no minorities, though Hitler was played by a New Zealander of 1/4th-Maori ancestry. Overlord had 1 black character in a supporting role. Midway's cast was 1/4th Asian, and only because 1/4th of the movie is told from the Japanese viewpoint.

Yeah, take your racism back to 4chan or whatever basement board you crawled out from.

Re: Disney Studios stops theaters from screening Black Panther

#30

Post by TheAdamAndChe » Tue, Sep 01, 2020, 8:00 PM UTC

Hamsdance wrote: post #25

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would be a good point, except for the double standard that is being applied to most movies nowadays. Almost all big movies based sometime in the past are being cast with a cast that is not representative of the racial outlook of the times. New WW2 movies are extremely diverse(edit: er maybe not). This wasn't some small movie trying to be historically accurate. This was a massive big-budget movie that made the co…

Which WW2 movies are those? I don't know of any that have cast minorities as Nazis or even depict mixed race combat units

I looked and yup you are right. I misremembered. Thanks! My point still stands with affirmative action being common in movies, but I'll try to avoid unintentional hyperbole.