wonder woman

It’s official: Gal Gadot’s superhero supreme will return to theaters soon.

Our children won’t believe us when we tell them that there used to be doubt over whether a female-fronted superhero movie would work at the box office. Even at present, the days of studio executive hand-wringing over whether audiences would deign to shell out their precious $11.75 to see a film in which a woman — who was not a man — did superhero things feel favorably remote. For director Patty Jenkins and her marble-carved star Gal Gadot have proven beyond all debate and rage-choked internet commenting that women are perfectly capable of making a whole mess of money during blockbuster season. And now it’s official.

We know a Wonder Woman sequel is happening – how could Warner Bros. not give us another Diana Prince outing after Patty Jenkins‘ film smashed its way to the top of the box office? The film, which has bypasses the final Harry Potter film to become the studio’s third-biggest release of all time, has yet to get an official sequel announcement, but there are rumors that such news is on the way.

There’s a certain amount of irony to Spider-Man: Homecoming displacing Wonder Woman as the top-grossing superhero movie on the current box-office chart. As it turns out, Wonder Woman’s continuing success in theaters means that it has achieved something that no movie since the original Spider-Man has accomplished: Achieving a total domestic gross that is nearly four times its opening weekend numbers.

After the smashing success of 'Wonder Woman' at the box office, a sequel was a no-brainer. But where will the Amazonian princess find adventure next? The USSR.

The Wonder Woman sequel train has pulled out of the station, and even with Patty Jenkins’ crossover superhero hit still playing in theaters, it’s already begun to pick up steam. Star Gal Gadot will return for the second solo project for the indestructible Amazon, they’ve landed writer Geoff Johns (who co-produced the Green Lantern movie, so, yikes) to handle the script, and while Jenkins has yet to put her Jane Hancock on the dotted line for another film, details of plot are now solidifying. For Wonder Woman, Diana battled those no-good fascists in World War I, and the sequel will reportedly plop her down in another historical era to intervene in a real-life global crisis. This time, the Rooskies will be the ones shaking in their boots.

Did any new releases come out this weekend? I honestly can’t remember. Someone mentioned that there was a new Marvel movie in theaters - one featuring some sort of Spider-Person - but that can’t be right. I feel like I would’ve seen that, perhaps promoted on an unprecedented level for any superhero movie? Hmm. Well, anyways, here’s the weekend box office estimates as of Sunday afternoon:

It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for, Edgar Wright fans: did the filmmaker’s action-packed Baby Driver score big with audiences? Or does this weekend belong to sequels, sequels, and more sequels? This weekend was always going to belong to Despicable Me 3— it’s a big hit with the kiddos, don’t you know— but there’s definitely some room for optimism in how the rest of the weekend Top 10 shook out. Here’s the numbers as of Sunday afternoon:

We all knew Wonder Woman was going to be a box office hit — passing $1 million in its opening weekend, becoming the highest-grossing female-directed live-action film ever made shortly after that — and how it’s shattered a new record. Wonder Woman is now the highest-grossing movie of the DC Extended Universe, passing Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman in box office sales.

It’s a pleasant Sunday afternoon in the world, which means it’s time for your weekend box office updates! While this was a disappointing weekend overall for a handful of new releases, there’s good news to be had: after a disappointing $144 million total gross last weekend, the box office bounced back to $187 million total over the past few days. That takes some of the pressure off Wonder Woman to, you know, save the summer blockbuster as we know it. Here’s the totals as of Sunday afternoon:

If you only look at the surface numbers, this was a pretty predictable week at the box office. Wonder Woman did well, The Mummy did not, and everything else shook out accordingly. That being said, there’s some pretty interesting narratives emerging in the how and why of this weekend’s box office report. Let’s take a look at the rankings as of Sunday afternoon and dive into some of the specifics:

Some 'Wonder'-ful news for one of this year's biggest blockbusters.