It was not that long ago that fans were concerned that Warner Bros. weren’t marketing “Wonder Woman” hard enough, but in hindsight, those fears seem silly. Buoyed by near unanimous critical and audience praise, the studio will be celebrating this weekend as they have their first real DC Films homerun.
“Wonder Woman” exceeded all expectations, opening with a terrific $100 million this weekend. With that figure, Patty Jenkins has smashed the all time record for an opening weekend by a female director. While the numbers may mark the lowest opening bow of the current DC Films, it should be noted, “Wonder Woman” also launched in the fewest cinemas (4,165) and it’s probably safe to say it would’ve been nipping at the $116 million bow of “Man Of Steel,” had it also opened on 4,207 screens. Nonetheless, “Wonder Woman” has the third biggest opening weekend of 2017 so far, and it should clean up handily overseas as well. The film netted $132 million abroad bringing the total weekend tally to $232 million. It’s an excellent launch for the film, which should wind up with $600-700 million worldwide when all is said and done.
READ MORE: ‘Wonder Woman’ Director Patty Jenkins Wants To Make ‘I Am Superman’ With Ryan Gosling
The only other major studio movie going into wide release this weekend was kids’ fare, “Captain Underpants.” The DreamWorks movie opened with a rather soft $23.5 million that, when compared with the studio’s $50.1 million debut for “The Boss Baby” this past spring, can’t help but feel like a disappointment. At the very least, the film will have a captive family audience until “Cars 3” arrives in a couple weeks and steals its thunder.
In box office milestones, “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2” has now crossed $800 million worldwide, while “Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” — despite having a terrible 65.7% drop in domestic sales since its opening weekend — has sailed past $500 million worldwide, thanks to international audiences, in particular China, where Jack Sparrow is apparently still a thing.
In limited release: “Churchill” did an underwhelming $426,616 on 215 screens; “Dean” had a bit better average managing to notch $60,366 from 15 screens; while “Band Aid” tuned up $31,500 from just 3 screens.
1. “Wonder Woman” — $100.5 million
2. “Captain Underpants” — $23.5 million
3. “Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” — $21.6 million ($114.6 mil.)
4. “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2” — $9.7 million ($355.4 mil.)
5. “Baywatch” — $8.5 million ($41.7 mil.)
6. “Alien: Covenant” — $4 million ($67.2 mil.)
7. “Everything, Everything” — $3.3 million ($28.3 mil.)
8. “Snatched” — $1.3 million ($43.8 mil.)
9. “Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul” — $1.2 million ($17.8 mil.)
10. “King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword” — $1.1 million ($37.1 mil.)