'Candyman' Slashes U.S. Box Office as First No. 1 Film Directed by Black Woman

Black History

By ShaCamree Gowdy Published: August 30, 2021

‘Candyman’ Slashes U.S. Box Office as First No. 1 Film Directed by Black Woman

Director Nia DaCosta and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in Candyman (2021). (PHOTO CREDIT: Universal Studios)

By: ShaCamree Gowdy

The weekend before Labor Day is said to be viewed as a dead zone for theater releases, but Nia DaCosta’s reimagining of Candyman has far exceeded expectations, making her the first Black woman to direct a No. 1 film.

In its first domestic weekend, the reboot of the 1992 horror film grossed an estimated $22,370,00, which was nearly double the lowball projection of $15 million, per Indie Wire’s Tom Brueggemann.

While Ava DuVernay’s films Selma and A Wrinkle in Time as well as Gina Prince-Blythewood’s Love and Basketball have all come close, they fared on the box office list at second place.

IndieWire reports that Lionsgate’s action franchise’s third installment, Angel Has Fallen, opened at $21 million in the same weekend three years ago and was considered a “great result” at the time. Don’t Breathe 2 launched at $10.6 million two weeks ago, leading to the lowball predictions for Candyman but failing to account for the film’s Black creative team and audience.

Deadline’s Anthony D’Alessandro reports that DaCosta is now working on The Marvels, the highly anticipated Captain Marvel sequel, which is set to hit theaters on November 11, 2022. She is the first Black woman to direct a Marvel Studios film with her work on the film.