Wonder Woman’s box office sweep continues. The film has already broken records for having the highest US opening weekend for a woman director. As of this box office weekend, it became the highest grossing domestic release from the DC Extended Universe ever.
This is big news, though Time Warner’s CEO has essentially said in the past that even their truly awful movies make enough money to justify their continued production. But by most accounts, Wonder Woman is not bad, so it’s success bodes well for continued WW movies and perhaps an uptick in DC super hero franchise quality? The Los Angeles Times reports that the combo of a woman-led movie and a woman director has produced cold hard cash results.
The film opened to $103 million, which is less than what Man of Steel raked in at $116 million its opening weekend, and far less than the $166 million of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which introduced Wonder Woman as a character, or the $133 million made by the critically panned Suicide Squad. But, as opposed to Batman v Superman, which had a viewer drop off of 69% after opening weekend, Wonder Woman’s excellent word of mouth has led to only a 45% decrease in attendance.
On Thursday night, the box office total domestically for Wonder Woman was $330.5 million, which surpasses Batman v Superman’s $330.3 million by a hair.
In other, more controversial Wonder Woman news, the Daily Mail reports that the film has been banned in Qatar, joining Lebanon and Tunisia in their boycott against Gal Gadot, who served in the IDF and has been vocally supportive of the army, leading some to accuse her of being a hard-right “zionist.” Only a few theaters were set to screen the movie, which is being shown in the UAE, Oman and Bahrain.