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Viola Davis stars in The Woman King, which is rumored to be an Oscar contender and is now streaming … [+]
Sony Pictures
When The Woman King released in mid September, some folks weren’t sure it would earn enough to surpass its $50 million production budget. But I was always sure – from jump – that the film would perform well and would also add a much-needed point of diversity to the genre of history-based films. The Gina Prince-Bythewood-directed film opened to a $19-million box office and now has earned a little over $66 million domestically and $22 million internationally, totaling a little over $92 million worldwide for a film about the Agojie women warriors of the Dahomey nation of west Africa.
The film is now poised to earn even more now that it is streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Vudu. It can also be found on Redbox.
Also, Prince-Bythewood has been sharing tidbits of the behind the scenes fun and action on her various social media accounts, including a lively recording of Lashana Lynch leading the group in a dance that is also seen in the film. Prince-Bythewood explains that Lynch was so in character that she ad-libbed portions of the speech, to great effect.
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“In addition to the actors’ hard-core fight and stunt training they also had to learn intricate dances and songs in Fongbe that started on volume 10 and stayed there,” wrote Prince-Bythewood. “This is an early rehearsal for the “Battle Dance” — based on the actual Agojie dances which were aggressive and incorporated machete stabs and throat cuts in the choreography. Even in rehearsal they are giving 110%. This was also the day I told Lashana Lynch to take her role within the Agojie into rehearsals to hone that dynamic. She ad libbed the Agojie chant and her warriors responded and I put it into the film. Their work ethic, their desire to be great, inspired me daily.”
Princeton professor Leonard Wantchekon, the official historian for the film, talked to me last month about his contributions to the film, including working with the film’s director to ensure accuracy when detailing the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade and helping producers to accurately portray the advanced nature and structure of Dahomey government, politics and innovations.
“It’s not like 6’5 or 7’ women doing this,” Wantchekon told me, for Forbes. “I think the deep lesson from the movie is the fact that those were girls that brought up to do what they did and they did it.”
Starring Viola Davis, Lashana Lynch, John Boyega and Thusu Mbedu, the film is rumored to be a major Oscar contender for a number of factors, including the writing/production/action, but also due to the positioning of the film. Rather than underselling the film by going straight to stream, Sony Pictures rightly figured out that audiences interested in history and also audiences interested in traditional action films and also audiences interested in pro-woman stories would be interested in the film. Sony Pictures either intrinsically understood this potential – or was persuaded to understand that potential – and marketed accordingly. Here’s hoping similar stories, which hold space for Black directors, black makeup artists, black historians and others, come to market in the coming years.
