A hit even Hollywood can’t ignore
Wonder Woman has ‘momentum that’s with us in every way’
NEW YORK — Batman is the superhero with the calling-card beam of light, but Wonder Woman sent a signal last weekend that even Hollywood couldn’t miss.
The Patty Jenkins-directed Wonder Woman grossed $103.3 million in North America over its debut weekend, a figure that easily surpassed industry expectations, set a new record for a film directed by a woman and bested all previous standalone female superhero movies put together. (There aren’t many and there hasn’t been one since 2005 — the Daredevil spinoff Elektra, starring Jennifer Garner.)
Strong reviews and word of mouth have made Wonder Woman a hit. And in a movie industry with few female filmmakers for its biggest blockbusters, it could be an important one.
“I am a filmmaker who wants to make successful films, of course. I want my film to be celebrated,” Jenkins said before her film’s debut. “But there’s a whole other person in me who’s sitting and watching what’s happening right now who so hopes, not for me, that this movie defies expectation. Because I want to see the signal that that will send to the world.”
Her objective appeared to be met by the opening of the heavily marketed $150-million movie that had spent a decade in development before finally — after hordes of other (male) superheroes — making it to the big screen.
Wonder Woman did not surpass the openings of previous DC Comics adaptations: The terribly received Batman v. Superman and Suicide Squad. unlike those releases, Wonder Woman is good enough to play strongly through the next few weeks. “The momentum is with us in every way,” said Warner Bros. distribution chief Jeff Goldstein.
The centre’s latest Celluloid Ceiling study shows women comprised seven per cent of directors working on the top 250 domestic grossing films of 2016. It was nine per cent in 1998.
Stacy L. Smith, director of the Media, Diversity and Social Change Initiative at USC Annenberg, cited the initiative’s three-year study that found female directors “face a steep fiscal cliff as they attempt to move from independent to more commercial filmmaking.” Of the 41 women directors interviewed, 44 per cent said they were interested in directing action films or blockbusters.
“We would all like to hope that the success of Wonder Woman will open doors not only for Patty Jenkins but for other female directors,” Smith said.
“However, research and theory suggests that until the narrow definition of leadership behind the camera changes, it will be an uphill battle for more women to work as directors on these types of movies. The female talent is there, it is the hiring process and the imaginations of executives and producers that represent the true barrier to progress.”