“Wonder Woman” set for $95M-plus debut
Director Patty Jenkins' “Wonder Woman” is making history at the North American box office after earning $38.9 million on Friday, its first day in theatres.
The Warner Bros. movie, starring Gal Gadot as the marquee superhero, is now headed for a weekend debut of $95 million or more from 4,165 theaters. That would mark the biggest opening of all time for a female director, supplanting Sam Taylor-Johnson's “Fifty Shades of Grey”, not adjusting for inflation. That film debuted to $93 million over the four-day Valentine's Day/Presidents Day weekend in 2015, including a three-day haul of $85 million. “Wonder Woman” has already scored the biggest opening day ever for a woman director.
The film is skewing female, whereas most superhero films draw an audience that's at a least 60 percent male. Female ticket buyers on Friday made up 54 percent of the audience, according to comScore's exit polling service, while Warners put that number at 52 percent.
Overseas, “Wonder Woman” is opening in almost every major market. The film's early foreign gross through Friday is $47.1 million from 55 markets, including $11.7 million from China. It is doing big business in Imax theaters around the globe.
“Wonder Woman” currently has a stellar 94 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes in a major win for Warners and DC Entertainment, whose “Man of Steel” (2013) and “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” (2016) were largely snubbed by critics. The film, costing $150 million to make before a major marketing spend, also marks the first time “Wonder Woman” has received her own big-screen adaptation.
The film opens as World War I pilot Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) and his plane crash on Themyscira, the island of the Amazons, where the Princess Diana (Gadot) has been trained by her aunt, the great warrior Antiope (Robin Wright). Soon, Diana leaves the island to try and stop the war, marking the beginning of her transformation into Wonder Woman.
The weekend's other new offering, DreamWorks Animation's “Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie”, is targeting younger tots and should place No. 2 with $25 million after costing a modest $38 million to produce.
Among holdovers, Disney's “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” looks to fall 65 percent in its second weekend to an estimated $22 million. Overseas is a different matter, where the movie remains a potent player and could beat Wonder Woman in some markets.
Source: THR
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