The Woman King faces crucial box-office battle

Viola Davis said the future of big-budget black female film-making in Hollywood is at stake as her ground-breaking African warrior epic The Woman King hits American cinemas on Friday.

The Oscar-winning actress said on Wednesday she feels intense pressure and conflicting emotions, because she knows the movie's performance will be judged in a way that films with white directors and casts are not.

"First of all, the movie has to make money. And I feel conflicted about that that we sort of have one or two chances," she said.

"If it doesn't make money, then what it means overall is that, what, black women, dark-skinned black women can't lead a global box office? "That's it, period. And now they have data on it because The Woman King did a, b and c. And that's what I'm conflicted about.

"Because it simply isn't true. We don't do that with white movies.

We simply don't. If a movie fails, you do another movie, and you do another movie just like it." Sony Pictures' The Woman King, which portrays the real-life 19th-century all-female warriors of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, is in many ways a step into the unknown for a major Hollywood studio.