It's official: Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman is now the top-grossing superhero origin movie in both the domestic and worldwide box offices. In five months, Gal Gadot's Amazon warrior princess has rocketed to the top of the charts past such household names as her fellow DC Comics heroes Batman, Superman, and Green Lantern, while also besting Marvel's Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man, and the rest of the MCU. And as far as superhero movies go, it's only super-sequels and team-ups that outearn Wonder Woman. Impressive stuff, no matter what James Cameron thinks.
As Forbes reports that, as of yesterday, the total worldwide tally for Wonder Woman pushed past 2002's Sam Raimi contemporary classic Spider-Man to take the top spot of superhero origin movies with $821.74 million. Spidey's early 2000s origin story stood for just about 15 years at the #1 ranking with $821.70 million worldwide, just as it occupied the top domestic spot with $403.7 million. Wonder Woman more easily eclipsed that tally with a total of more than $412.5 million in Stateside sales.
This thing is a juggernaut, and shows no signs of slowing down on a franchise level. Wonder Woman is easily the best thing going for Warner Bros. when it comes to the launch of Justice League on November 17th. Jason Momoa's Aquaman might end up being the surprise crowd-pleaser, or perhaps that honor will go to Ezra Miller's Flash, but until those two get their own standalone origin stories, you can expect Wonder Woman to hold this record for a little while longer.
Then there's the Marvel side of things with the massively anticipated Black Panther rolling out in February 2018. Will that origin movie surpass Wonder Woman before the film has had a chance to fully enjoy its spot atop the heap? Or perhaps the Amazonian will reign supreme until Marvel's female-forward superhero origin story Captain Marvel arrives on the scene in 2019? Regardless, hopefully this finally opens the eyes to filmmakers (and toymakers) that the ladies have every right to star front-and-center in their own films and franchises, and when they do so, they can outperform even the most famous fictional men in history.
For more of our coverage of Wonder Woman and the DCEU, take a look at the following links:
- 6 Superhero Films That Could’ve Easily Included an LGBTQ Character
- Henry Cavill Says DCEU Approach “Hasn’t Necessarily Worked”
- Gal Gadot Explains How Wonder Woman Changed After ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’
- ‘Justice League’ Tickets Go on Sale as New Trailers and Posters Debut
- Oscar Beat: Best Picture Predictions – It’s Complicated