A win for women
WONDER Woman – and its director Patty Jenkins – have been praised for breaking the glass ceiling for female-led films after the superhero blockbuster opened around the world at the weekend.
The DC comic book hero lassoed No. 1 at the Australian box office with a $6,768,064 opening weekend – the fifth biggest opening of 2017 so far.
The movie left the weekend’s other big debut, Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron’s Baywatch ($3.48 million), in its shade. Worldwide, Wonder Woman grossed just under $300 million for the weekend.
In the US, it scored a $134.7 million (US$100.5 million) weekend, an opening industry site Deadline proclaimed “breaks the glass ceiling for female directors”.
The previous best opening weekend for a film directed by a woman in the US was Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Fifty Shades Of Grey with $114.3 million.
Locally, Wonder Woman was unable to better the 2015 openings of Fifty Shades with $10.44 million and the Elizabeth Banks-directed Pitch Perfect 2 with $9.42 million.
Wonder Woman also failed to match the opening weekend of previous instalments in the DC Extended Universe: Man Of Steel ($8.87 million), Batman v Superman ($13.12 million) and Suicide Squad ($13.92 million).
Still, the praise has been strong for both Jenkins and her film, which stars Gal Gadot as the super Diana Prince.
Distributor Warner Bros’ Jeff Goldstein said: “Wonder Woman is a woman for our time, and her message and the tone that Patty Jenkins set forth connects with now.”
Ava DuVernay, who will become only the third woman after Jenkins and Kathryn Bigelow to direct a US$100 million-plus budgeted film when Disney fantasy A Wrinkle In Time opens next year, gave the Wonder Woman director a shout-out on Twitter, saying Jenkins is “breaking the box office and making herstory!”
“A triumph! Brava!” she added. Jenkins also won Twitter praise from Banks, Marvel turned DC director Joss Whedon and Marvel directors Scott Derrickson and James Gunn.