‘Wonder Woman’ has been tearing up the box office, wowing both critics and fans. In 20 days of release, it has racked up over $289 million domestically and $600M worldwide. By this weekend it should shatter the glass ceiling by besting ‘Man of Steel’.
Released in 2013, Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot, starring Henry Cavill and Amy Adams, made a strong $128M its opening weekend, but was met with mixed reviews and faced stiff competition from the likes of ‘World War Z’, ‘Monsters University’, ‘The Heat’ and ‘Despicable Me 2’. ‘Man of Steel’ earned close to $291M by the time it left theaters, while ‘Wonder Woman’ has earned as much and is only headed into its fourth weekend.
While ‘Man of Steel’ made an impressive $668M worldwide, it wasn’t the glowing success that Warner Brothers expected which led to the decision to follow it up with ‘Batman V Superman’ instead of a straight up ‘Man of Steel’ sequel. Unfortunately, ‘Batman V Superman’ also failed to impress and it fell short of WB’s expectations for a second time, with $873.3M. That’s nothing to sneeze at, but it’s no secret that WB was hoping the mashup film would make at least $1 billion worldwide. ‘Wonder Woman’ may or may not hit the same number as ‘Batman V Superman’, but keep in mind that it has only been out for a month and it cost a LOT less to make. So WB should be thrilled.
At this rate, it looks as though ‘Wonder Woman’ will wind up as one of the best grossing superhero movies of all time. It should easily clear $360M in the US, placing it beyond ‘Spider-Man’, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and possibly even ‘Deadpool’ which made $363M. It could also place the Patty Jenkins film among the Top 10 superhero movies of all time. And should it best ‘Deadpool’ and ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’, ‘Wonder Woman’ will be the highest-grossing superhero movie without Batman, Spider-Man or Iron Man in it.
And interestingly, ‘Wonder Woman’ has vastly outperformed Chris Pine’s previous big budget hits including ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ which made $467M worldwide gross.
In the coming weeks, ‘Wonder Woman’ will face some competition. But it’s been a unique year with fans turning their backs on some long-running franchises which were once guaranteed hits. ‘Cars 3’ is underperforming, so similarly ‘Despicable Me 3’ may not be a surefire smash. According to tracking, ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ is NOT expected to beat ‘Wonder Woman’. ‘Transformers: The Last Knight’ is getting AWFUL reviews… but so has every ‘Transformers’ movie before that. That won’t automatically sink it, but should sequel-itis strike, audiences may finally stop showing up.
Are you surprised by ‘Wonder Woman”s success? Or have you embraced Wonder-Mania?
‘Wonder Woman’ was directed by Patty Jenkins and stars Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Connie Nielsen, Robin Wright, Ewen Bremner, David Thewlis, Elena Anaya, Lucy Davis, Danny Huston, Saïd Taghmaoui, and Eugene Brave Rock. It is now playing in theaters.
Source: Forbes
