In the weeks leading up to the release of Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman, prognosticators estimated that the superhero blockbuster would manage fair success in its June opening weekend - matching movies like Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger by pulling in somewhere between $60-70 million. As it turns out, those expectations were way, way off, as Wonder Woman had a record-breaking weekend - pulling in $100.5 million domestically and $223 million globally.
It's a stunning total that is only amplified by the fact that the silver medal winner this weekend was Captain Underpants with a $23.5 million take. As is pointed out by The Hollywood Reporter, a big part of what makes Wonder Woman's success so significant is the fact that the blockbuster was made by a female director - which is confusingly rare. The three-day haul for the Patty Jenkins movie breaks the opening weekend record that was previously set by Sam Taylor-Johnson's Fifty Shades of Grey - which pulled in $85 million in the same frame.
Not only is this a huge win for women directors, but it's a major victory for female-fronted superhero blockbusters in general. The reason why it took so long to get a Wonder Woman film made is because of the ridiculous axiom in Hollywood that girls don't care about superheroes and boys don't want to watch women on screen. Those who perpetuated this myth pointed to flops like Elektra and Catwoman, but failed to acknowledge the fact that both of those movies were terrible. Now that we have a legitimately good female-fronted superhero blockbuster, people are showing up in droves and loving it (evidenced by the film's 'A' rated CinemaScore). It's a great sign not only for projects that have already been announced, like Captain Marvel, Ant-Man & The Wasp, and Black and Silver, but presumably an indication that we will see a lot more of them coming down the pike in the near future.
Thanks to the super positive buzz surrounding Wonder Woman, it also seems incredibly unlikely that this particular money train will be slowing down as we continue through June. The movie does have blockbuster competition coming next week in the form of Alex Kurtzman's The Mummy, but the way things are going could still see the latest feature from the DC Extended Universe making north of $60 million in its sophomore weekend. Of course, you can most certainly expect us to keep tracking the numbers here on CinemaBlend.
Did you go see Wonder Woman this weekend? Did you see it twice? Hit the comments section below with not only your thoughts, feelings and opinions on the film, but what you think of its success and what it means for the blockbuster landscape going forward!
