After a box office run that saw the film gross an astonishing $1.344 billion worldwide, Marvel and Disney’s Black Panther will make its Netflix debut in September. Black Panther will however be one of the last Disney movies released on Netflix as the studio prepares to launch its own subscription streaming service.

A phenomenon upon its release earlier this year, Black Panther’s impact was felt well beyond the box office, as the movie became as much a cultural cause as a blockbuster. Due in large part to the film’s cultural impact, many have predicted Black Panther will have a real chance to contend for this year’s Oscar for Best Picture, becoming the rare superhero film to receive such recognition. Perhaps at least partially in response to the buzz over Black Panther getting an Oscar nod, the Academy recently announced the creation of a new Best Popular Film category, with an eye toward giving more audience-friendly fare a chance to win gold during awards season (and hopefully draw more viewers to the Oscars ceremony).

With Black Panther garnering Oscar buzz as well as basking in the glow of a massive box office run, Netflix subscribers will get a chance to watch - or re-watch - the film beginning on September 4, as revealed by Netflix Twitter account Strong Black Lead. Black Panther joins Thor: Ragnarok, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Captain America: Civil War on Netflix’s currently available line-up of MCU films. But as previously mentioned, with Disney looking to launch its own streaming service, there’s no telling how long the above titles will remain available to Netflix users.


According to previous reports, Disney’s deal with Netflix will cover MCU films through Ant-Man and the Wasp, but will end with next year’s Captain Marvel. This means 2018’s other MCU blockbuster, the universe-shaking Avengers: Infinity War, will also become available on Netflix at some point likely late in the year. It’s possible that around Christmas time families will be able to gather for a truly awesome Netflix double-feature of Black Panther and Infinity War.

But folks who swear by Netflix shouldn’t get too attached to the MCU movies available on the service. Naturally, Disney will want all their huge titles available to make their streaming service as loaded as possible with desirable content, and of course they won’t want their competitors being able to show the same movies. Unfortunately for Disney, their other huge franchise Star Wars will not be fully available when the streaming service launches, due to issues relating to TV and streaming rights. Given the lack of Star Wars, Disney will be leaning even more heavily on Black Panther and the rest of their MCU films to give their new service a leg-up.

KEY RELEASE DATES

  • Captain Marvel (2019) release date: Mar 08, 2019
  • The Avengers 4 / Untitled Avengers Movie (2019) release date: May 03, 2019
  • Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) release date: Jul 05, 2019