<P> Black Panther premiered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on April 18, 2018 . The occasion marks the first public film screening since movie theaters were banned in the kingdom in the early 1980's, after ultraconservative religious standards were introduced in 1979 . The ban was lifted in December 2017 by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as part of an effort to revamp Saudi society . The film premiered in a newly constructed 620 leather seat cinema, owned by AMC Theatres, in Riyadh's King Abdullah Financial District that was originally intended to be a symphony hall . Disney's regional distributor Italia Film revealed that 40 seconds of the film had been removed, which was in line with cuts made to the film across the region . Awwad Alawwad, Saudi Arabia's Minister of Culture and Information, and Adam Aron, CEO of AMC Entertainment, were in attendance for the premiere along with other diplomats and industry experts; no one from the cast or production team was in attendance . The premiere also had men and women sitting together, a representation of the Saudi government's recently relaxed enforcement of laws banning co-mingling between unrelated men and women . Black Panther screened for five days before Avengers: Infinity War premiered on April 26 in the kingdom . </P> <P> Marvel debuted early footage and concept art from the film in April 2017, at a press event for several of the MCU Phase Three films . Kyle Buchanan at Vulture.com praised the cinematography, costume and production design, and focus on dark - skinned actors and characters, saying "Black Panther doesn't look like any of the other Marvel movies...If this is what the future of superhero movies looks like, deal me in ." Feige believed the screened footage was the first time Marvel had shown raw dailies, a decision made because the company wanted to show off the film's cast (which Feige called "the highest - class cast we've had on a first movie") and diversity, even though editing for it had not yet begun . </P> <P> A teaser poster was released ahead of the first teaser trailer, which premiered during Game 4 of the 2017 NBA Finals . Fans felt the poster was poorly photoshopped, and tweets mentioning it were only 27 percent positive, and 27 percent negative, according to CNBC's marketing technology firm Amobee . The poster was also compared to a real - life picture of Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton holding two gun spears . The trailer received a much more positive response, with Peter Sciretta of / Film saying it was "nothing like I was expecting this movie to look like and that's refreshing". io9's Charles Pulliam - Moore called the teaser "every bit as intense as you were hoping it would be" and "epic as hell". Andrew Husband for Uproxx felt the single teaser "easily outshines Spider - Man: Homecoming's big - from - the - beginning marketing campaign". Forbes's Scott Mendelson felt that "Black Panther has the chance to be a seminal event in the same way we're now seeing with Wonder Woman ." The trailer was viewed 89 million times in 24 hours, and "dominated the conversation on social media for much of the night" over Game 4, being the top - trending item on Twitter . The Hollywood Reporter noted that the teaser generated 349,000 Twitter mentions in 24 hours, also more than Game 4 . The amount of mentions were second to the amount the Star Wars: The Last Jedi teaser received . comScore and its PreAct service noted over 466,000 new social media conversations for the film after the trailer released, the most for the week . For the week ending on June 18, comScore and its PreAct service again noted social media conversations for the film, with over 33,000 new ones, the second-most for the week behind Spider - Man: Homecoming . The service also noted Black Panther produced a total of over 566,000 conversations to date . </P> <P> Costumes from the film were on display at D23 Expo 2017 and the 2017 San Diego Comic - Con . Also in July, Marvel Studios unveiled a partnership with Lexus, with the 2018 Lexus LC being featured in the film . A graphic novel, Black Panther: Soul of a Machine, was released in December 2017 from writers Fabian Nicieza, Geoffrey Thorne and Chuck Brown, with cover illustrations by Scott "Rahzzah" Wilson and Szymon Kudranski, in which Black Panther defeats a villain with the help of the Lexus LC 500 . Lexus also unveiled the 2018 LC Inspiration Series production car and a concept coupe dubbed the Black Panther Inspired LC . Coogler, Boseman and other members of the cast presented exclusive footage of the film at the 2017 San Diego Comic - Con, which received a standing ovation from the audience . The footage segued into a montage featuring Kendrick Lamar's song "DNA". Coogler called the lyrics "amazing" and both literally and culturally appropriate for the footage and film . In September 2017, Coogler, Gurira, and Moore participated in a panel at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Annual Legislative Conference, where exclusive footage from the film was also shown and met with a positive response . </P>

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