What with all the gnashing of teeth regarding DC superhero movies and, to many, these same movies’ perceived failures, there was a lot riding on the release of Wonder Woman. The trailers looked terrific, but then again so too did the trailers for Suicide Squad, a film that even this defender of Batman v Superman couldn’t defend too hard (the plot of that movie was a complete mess, though I had to admit that if you were able to ignore this admittedly significant detail there was some entertainment to be had in the performances of the various actors).
When the Memorial Day Weekend box office turned out to be a bust, matching an 18 year low in terms of box office take, I felt it wasn’t too terribly surprising.
Audiences, I theorized, were perhaps burned by Prometheus and therefore not all that willing -without some damn good reviews/word of mouth- to give Alien: Covenant a try. This was most certainly my situation. Had I read good things about AC, I would have gone out to see it. But Prometheus, despite the beautiful look and some great acting by Noomi Rapace, left me cold. And when I found out what director Ridley Scott did with her character, the only character I liked in the previous film, I had no more interest in seeing it.
In the case of the latest Pirates of the Caribbean, I suspect that’s a franchise that’s gone on two or three films too many. It didn’t help that Johnny Depp’s bizarre behavior of late didn’t help the situation.
And though I love me some raunchy, “R” rated comedies, any interest I might have for the Baywatch movie was dashed when I saw the very lame NSFW red-band trailer of the movie. The trailer, to put it nicely, wasn’t funny at all. Indeed, it seemed to focus on the fact that the Rock gets to say the word “fuck” in several different permutations and audiences were expected to laugh. Again, I like raunchy comedies, but having a person swear an awful lot does not equal comedy gold.
As for Guardians of the Galaxy 2, that film was released a while back and, while it did very well at the box office, those who wanted to see it seemed to have done so and, therefore, the film was on its way out.
So, in my opinion, people were itching for something new and the three new films, plus this hold-over, just weren’t cutting it, which seems clear based on the weak box-office take. And that’s why I suspected the release of Wonder Woman the week after Memorial Day would provide plenty of reasons to smile for DC and Warner Brothers.
Now, understand, I’m far from a psychic and I can no better guess what’s going to happen in the next hour much less the next day or week.
Yet I nonetheless had a feeling Wonder Woman would do exceedingly well. In part this was due to the early reactions, before the review embargo was lifted, which were generally very positive. Once the actual reviews were released, they confirmed those early tweets. Like Suicide Squad, the movie’s trailers looked fantastic.
And add one more element: The current times and the fact that this was the first superhero film for this modern era (defined as roughly from when the first Iron Man was released) which features a woman as its main character.
So with audiences dissatisfied with the current slate of movies it seemed obvious there was a void. And given Wonder Woman was next in line and looked so intriguing and was getting such great reviews, it felt like a no-brainer to guess it would do exceedingly well.
And, it would appear, so it did.
According to estimates (here’s one from The Huffington Post) the movie broke records in its release. It most certainly is the biggest release directed by a woman and the $100.5 to $100.6 million it took in I’m sure did bring smiles to those folks at DC and Warners. There’s already word that director Patty Jenkins and star Gal Godot will return, quickly I imagine, for Wonder Woman 2.
I remain curious to see the film and hope to do so within the next day or two. I further hope it tracks as high with me as it does with so many others.
After all, that’s all you want in a film, right?
To be entertained.