Women-only screenings of ‘Wonder Woman’ sell out and prompt complaints

The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, a chain based in Austin, Texas, said it would host five women-only screenings of “Wonder Woman” in Austin and New York. The announcement led to both praise and complaints from various online corners.

“Wonder Woman,” the latest in a series of Warner Bros. movies based on DC Comics characters, stars Gal Gadot in the title role and opens Thursday. It is the first big-budget movie focused on a female comic book character in more than a decade and the first such movie to be directed by a woman, Patty Jenkins.

On Wednesday, the Alamo’s Austin branch announced it would hold a special screening for women on June 6, with proceeds going to Planned Parenthood. “Apologies, gentlemen, but we’re embracing our girl power and saying ‘No Guys Allowed,’” the announcement read. “And when we say ‘People Who Identify as Women Only,’ we mean it.” The theater also pledged that every staff member working at the screening would be female.

The announcement garnered some initial criticism on Twitter and Facebook. “If you had a guys only screening of Thor 3 there’d be an uproar and you know it,” one commenter said.

However, most of the response was positive.

Interest was validated by ticket sales — the first screening quickly sold out as did an additional showing on the same day. A screening at the Alamo’s Brooklyn outpost sold out in an hour.