How Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan became the best duo in Hollywood

Thus far, Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan have created three movies together that could be considered amongst some of the greatest of this generation. But the duo also brings to memory an old cinematic relationship that changed film.

Off- screen, the two are compadres and when it comes time to work they seem to produce magic. The kind of magic Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro used to create whenever they collaborated.

What duo is doing better than Coogler and Jordan, now? None. Fruitvale Station was beautiful and proved itself a great film winning 39 awards. Mind you this was Coogler’s directing debut on the big screen and the first time the two worked together.

Fruitvale Station was also a much-needed break for Jordan’s career as he had already landed various acting parts but had to prove that he could carry a lead role. It’s crazy to think that the Coogler and Jordan partnership would commence over a 10-minute conversation about the movie at a Starbucks.

Beyond the awards proving the duo’s first movie collaboration was a success, Fruitvale Station was created on $900,000 budget yet managed to gross over $17 million. The movie shocked the world and was critically acclaimed as one of the best movies of the new decade.

This duo’s debut sound familiar? Back in 1973, Scorcese and De Niro would pair up for the first time to produce Mean Streets. Low key, Mean Streets was a low budget film and a hit in the box office. Today, it stands as one of the best American films ever created.

Moving forward the cinematic Coogler and Jordan duo wanted something bigger and landed Creed. The two young visionaries were entrusted to carry on one of the biggest movie franchises, Rocky. 

Under pressure, the Black director-actor duo crushed the box office bringing in $173.6 million in global sales. Not bad for the second time working together and not too shabby for Coogler’s second major film. 

The success of Creed would lead to Coogler to become the youngest Marvel Studios filmmaker and the comic franchise’s first Black director ever. Of course, he would pair up with Jordan again launching the Marvel franchise, Black Panther, so they could absolutely smash the box office again. 

They did, bringing in a whopping $1.2 billion for their work together in the dopest movie of 2018, Black Panther. Just like Scorcese and Di Nero’s Taxi Driver, the movie had a huge impact on the culture. Can you say Wakanda forever?

Now, Coogler and Jordan are on the verge of making many more box office killers and taking over the film industry, just like Scorcese and De Niro did in their prime. The iconic duo is now working on a fourth movie called Wrong Answer.

The film is about an Atlanta education scandal in 2006. Hopefully, they won’t ever let us down. Scorcese and De Niro had a four-decade streak of straight classical films. With Coogler and Jordan’s track records I’d say they’ll have the same luck.