The Viola Davis historical action epic The Woman King is set to become the second Black female directed film to hit #1 in the domestic box office. The first film to do so was Candyman, the legacy sequel and fourth film in the Candyman franchise, which was directed by Nia DaCosta. Following her success with the horror project, DaCosta has been given the opportunity to helm a huge blockbuster film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, taking the reins of the upcoming Captain Marvel sequel The Marvels, which will team Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), WandaVision's Monica Rambeau (Candyman's Teyonah Parris), and Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani).
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The Woman King, which was directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, opened theatrically on September 16 following its Toronto International Film Festival premiere on September 9. Davis stars as General Nanisca, who was the leader of a group of female warriors in the West African kingdom of Dahomey during the 1820s. The film follows her training a new crop of women to fight against a deadly new threat to their community. The ensemble cast around Davis includes Thuso Mbedu, Sheila Atim, John Boyega, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Adrienne Warren, Jayme Lawson, and No Time to Die star Lashana Lynch.
Per Deadline, The Woman King is performing even higher than expected, with a projected total weekend gross of $18 million. That will place it at #1 for the weekend by a considerable margin, as railing behind it is the second-week horror film Barbarian at $6.5 million and Ti West's X prequel Pearl at $3.2 million, rounded out by the Agatha Christie-inspired murder mystery See How They Run at #4 and the Brad Pitt actioner Bullet Train at #5. This will make The Woman King only the second #1 film in domestic box office history to be helmed by a Black female director.
Prince-Bythewood is a director who has been on the scene for quite some time. She made her feature debut with the beloved 2000 romance Love & Basketball, starring Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps, going on to helm 2008's The Secret Life of Bees and 2014's Beyond the Lights. Although she has worked sporadically in television in the meantime, her 2020 Netflix action flick The Old Guard was only her fourth feature film.
This could possibly be the result of an internal Hollywood bias that is frequently noted by Black filmmakers, making it difficult for directors of color to be signed on for follow-up projects even after making successful films. Hopefully, this #1 hit will allow the filmmaker to pursue bigger and more frequent projects, just like DaCosta before her. It also doesn't hurt that, in addition to being a box office success, The Woman King is a critical darling, currently holding a Certified Fresh 94% on Rotten Tomatoes.