— stoking public conversation with her art, while explaining very little about it". Ohio State University associate professor Treva Lindsey added that Beyoncé "is allowing her art to speak for itself" and "opening up space for robust conversations". Release Black Is King was released globally on July 31, 2020, on Disney+. On the film's release date, the official music video for "Already" was released, as well as a deluxe edition of The Gift which includes both the original and extended versions of "Black Parade" and a remix of "Find Your Way Back" by MeLo-X. As Disney+ is not yet available in Africa, a distribution deal was made with Central and West African television channel Canal+ Afrique and South African media conglomerate MultiChoice Group's channel M-Net to screen Black Is King across Sub-Saharan Africa on August 1, 2020. For the film's premiere, the MultiChoice Group opened M-Net for all DStv customers. As part of the deal, Black Is King was aired in countries such as South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Namibia, Cameroon, Liberia, Burundi, Senegal, Togo, Somalia, Benin, Congo, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Gabon, and Cape Verde. Additionally, Emirati television network OSN screened Black Is King throughout the Middle East and North Africa region. Upon release, Black Is King went straight to number one on the Disney+ Trending chart for the week ending August 2, 2020. Black Is King was one of the 15 most streamed films of 2020. According to Twitter's "Twitter From Home" report, Black Is King was the second most tweeted about movie from March to September in the United States, with Black Panther in first place. Black Is King's release was also one of the eight most talked-about moments on Instagram of 2020. Reception Critical response Black Is King received universal acclaim from critics, with praise for its visuals, direction, music, themes, and cultural relevance. Several publications declared Black Is King as Beyoncé's magnum opus, including GQ, Vogue, de Volkskrant, Harper's Bazaar, Glamour, and The Root. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus states: "Beyoncé is King." At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 84 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". English film critic Mark Kermode, in an episode of Mark Kermode's Secrets of