Wonder Woman has won its second straight week at the box office, holding off the critically acclaimed horror film It Comes at Night as well as Tom Cruise’s and Russell Crowe’s sojourns into the “Dark Universe” for Universal’s historic monster movie franchises with The Mummy .
At this point, the continuation of the DC Extended Movie Universe (DCEMU) has been far and away the most successful effort with critics.
A trip to the critical aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reveals a film with 93 percent favorability — a coveted “certified fresh,” according to the site’s metrics.
Compare this to the performances of Man of Steel (55 percent), Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (27 percent), and Suicide Squad (25 percent), and it’s clear that it’s the first film DC has shepherded that critics have been able to tolerate, let alone enjoy.
The fan community has also embraced Wonder Woman with more enthusiasm, giving it 92 percent favorability compared to 75 percent for MoS , 63 percent for BVS , and 62 percent for SS .
Director Patty Jenkins took a $149 million budget and managed to score a profit in week one, Box Office Mojo reports , adding a consistent daily total with weekday performance.
In week two, at least domestically, the film has dropped just 44.6 percent, which is atypical for blockbusters that do most of their business in the opening weekend (50-60 percent drops are more common).
In fact, Batman V Superman suffered one of the largest second-week drops in the history of motion pictures when it fell 69 percent, according to Variety .
How #WonderWoman ‘s Island Home Was Created https://t.co/W4DhTK1M6t pic.twitter.com/clHkHMTIrE
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) June 11, 2017
With the worldwide performance factored in, Wonder Woman now sits at $435 million. Assuming a 1.5 multiplier for marketing, the film’s true break-even is somewhere around $225 million, placing it in the clear and already launching some talk of Jenkins having more control over future films, including Man of Steel 2 .
Clearly, Wonder Woman is a money-maker, but will it be enough to push it past its three predecessors?
BVS finished its worldwide run with $873 million; MoS brought in $668 million; and SS logged another $745 million.
Wonder Woman is well-positioned to go after Man of Steel , and it has a credible chance of catching up to Suicide Squad , assuming that it’s foreign box office holds.
Batman V Superman , however, may be a tough hill to climb with a busy summer season approaching.
Still, the critical and audience word-of-mouth helps.
Assuming the totals for where its money is coming from holds, Wonder Woman would have to do the following to beat out its older brothers.
Currently, 47.1 percent of its box office is coming from the U.S. market. The remaining 52.9 percent emanates from overseas.
The “foreign market” can be a little more difficult to codify since it encompasses several countries, but extrapolating from the U.S. market can give some idea of what to expect from now through the end-of-run for Wonder Woman .
If it drops 50 percent each week from here on, week three will bring in $28.59 million; week four, $14.3 million; week five, $7.15 million; week six, $3.5 million; and week seven, $1.75 million. (Or an additional $55.29 million.)
Adding these figures to the current U.S. total comes to $260.29 million. Continuing the extrapolation would place the foreign tally at $292.34 million. The overall would be $552.63 million, making it the weakest financial performer of the four DCEMU films.
However, as Scott Mendelson of Forbes points out, Wonder Woman has enjoyed the smallest superhero drop since Batman Begins .
Batman Begins ‘ performance was especially strong, garnering the film a 20-week stay at the box office. It finished with $205.3 million domestically after starting at just $72.8 million.
If Wonder Woman can enjoy the same longevity, that could be the game-changer. But what do you think, readers?
Will the Wonder Woman box office totals catch any of the previous three films? Sound off in the comments section.
[Featured Image by DC/Warner]