Nia DaCosta Is The 1st Black Female Director To Debut Atop The U.S. Box Office

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Director and screenwriter Nia DaCosta (shown here in 2018) has made history with the debut of her horror film Candyman.

Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Fe

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Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Fe

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DaCosta directed and co-wrote the film with Get Out director Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld, one of the executive producers of BlacKkKlansman. Premiering alongside the film was a «social impact initiative, a campaign created to promote conversation around issues explored in the film, such as gentrification.

Candyman’s box office success and DaCosta’s historic accomplishment are especially impressive given the current climate. Movie theaters are still recovering, as the pandemic drags on. Last year’s lockdowns hit the film industry hard, but as theaters have reopened over the last year with new safety measures in place, industry experts are predicting an eventual comeback.

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Next up for DaCosta? She’s joined the Marvel cinematic universe after having signed on last year as director of The Marvels, a sequel to 2019’s Captain Marvel that’s currently in production, according to Deadline. It’s another history-making move for the 31-year-old director and screenwriter: The Marvels will make her the first Black woman director to sit at the helm of a Marvel movie.

Moving from horror to action has been a refreshing change in theme, DaCosta said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly last month.

«It’s a lot less traumatizing to work on for sure, she said. «But this movie also deals with specific, personal, sometimes sad things. But … it’s been nice to work in a different world for sure.