Wonder Woman (June 2nd, 2017)

After weathering lackluster critical scores and OK fan response with last year’s Batman V. Superman: Dawn Of Justice and Suicide Squad, all is well and correct in the Warner Bros/DC universe as Wonder Woman is both a hit with critics (94% Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes) and audiences, earning an A CinemaScore on top of her current $97.1 million opening.

Out of all the titles in the WB/DC canon, Wonder Woman owns one of five rare A grades along with Batman, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. Today will determine whether Wonder Woman propels past $100M, and a few believe it’s not out of the question.
  
Four weeks ago, Wonder Woman arrived on tracking at $65M and just grew from there — to $75M three weeks out, and $90M a few days before its opening. Not only is that evidence of Warner Bros’ marketing machine working effectively, but it’s also an example of what happens when Rotten Tomatoes works in a tentpole’s favor, especially as there’s a groundswell of great reviews days before a film opens.

Compare this to last weekend, when two movies — Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and Baywatch, which originally arrived on tracking a month out with great prospects — saw their B.O. projections dashed days before opening no thanks to the aggregator site’s sour scores. Even though both titles earned decent CinemaScores of A- and B+, respectively, moviegoers relied instead on Rotten Tomatoes in determining whether to watch those movies or not.

But now Wonder Woman can look forward to super-powerful long legs for the rest of summer thanks to the Rotten Tomato rating and excellent audience reaction; Screen Engine/ComScore is now reporting a 74% definite recommend for the Gal Gadot-starring movie.
  
The pent-up demand for Wonder Woman is reminiscent of how moviegoers were longing for the first Batman movie 28 years ago. Look around and you’ll see women and young girls wearing Wonder Woman T-shirts and leather jackets, licensed product that’s part of a $6.5 billion merchandising revenue stream for Warner Bros. In fact, during the month leading up to Wonder Woman‘s opening, eBay sales for her merchandise more than doubled when compared to April. In fact, Warner Bros Consumer Products has grouped their DC femmes Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn, Supergirl and Poison Ivy as a means to rival Disney’s Princess doll line which generates $4B annually.
 
Now, whenever a studio is marketing a tentpole, the last thing they need is controversy that distracts from their campaign, seeps into a film’s reviews and sends its box office down the drain, i.e., Ghost In The Shell offending the Asian American community with its whitewash casting of Scarlett Johansson. In fact, Wonder Woman last month endured a small controversy of its own when the studio partnered with ThinkThin protein bars. The announcement created immediate ire among female-driven media: They felt the cross-promotion ran counter to Wonder Women’s symbol of female empowerment, but it reminded women of the harsh criticism that Gadot endured over her body following her attachment to the project. But it was ThinkThin’s product slogans that jived with Wonder Woman‘s sensibilities, i.e. a strong body makes a strong mind; a scale can’t measure your strength, courage, kindness or intelligence.

However, the good will emanating from Wonder Woman was so loud, it’s made that marketing snafu ancient history. Nothing could stand in the way of this film’s momentum.
 
Bigger progress is being made this weekend by the Patty Jenkins-directed film, especially in a Hollywood that counts only 4% female directors across 1,000 top movies (for the period of 2007-2016, per a USC study): Wonder Woman shattered the domestic box office opening record for a movie directed by a woman, beating previous champ Fifty Shades Of Grey by Sam Taylor-Johnson ($85.1M). Wonder Woman is the second benchmark for female helmers in less than a week following Sofia Coppola’s best director win at the Cannes Film Festival for her movie The Beguiled; it marked just the second time in the event’s 70-year history a woman has won that prize. The hope from these events is that the major studios embrace female directors for big-budget projects in greater numbers. Marvel and Disney are respectively carrying the torch, with Anna Boden as co-director on the Brie Larson-starring Captain Marvel and Ava DuVernay on A Wrinkle In Time.

CinemaScore showed more women turning out — 52%-48%, with 14% under 18 (A) and 14% between the ages of 18-24 (A+), as well as 53% under age 35. However, for the most part, the movie means more to older millennials and Gen X, with 71% over the age of 25 (A). Fifty-nine percent came out because it was a Wonder Woman movie, while Gadot was responsible for 32% of all ticket buyers. PostTrak continues to show older females over 25 leading the charge to Wonder Woman (37%), followed by guys over 25 (34%), females under 25 (17%), and men under 25 (12%).

Thanks to Wonder Woman, Warner Bros’ 2017 domestic box office tally by Sunday will near $640M, up 22% over the Jan. 1- June 4 period last year.