wonder woman

Wonder Woman just had a record-setting opening weekend. While everyone was at the theater watching her, the woman who plays the Amazonian princess, Gal Gadot, got into a back-and-forth on Twitter with the Asgardian God of Thunder over a question comics fans have debated for years: Who would win in a fight, Wonder Woman or Thor?

The film was the top opening ever for a female director.

Based on how this weekend’s box office numbers shaped up, odds are good that you either saw Wonder Woman this weekend or you avoided the theater altogether. It was a record-setting few days for everyone’s favorite warrior princess  —  sorry, Xena  —  but things were decidedly less rosy if your movie was… well, literally anything else. Here are the box office estimates as of Sunday afternoon:

As we noted in our review of Wonder Woman, the primary antagonist of the film, the God of War Ares, is a bit of a mystery. Early in the film, a young Diana (Gal Gadot) is taught the origin of her race of Amazons, which involves Ares slaughtering all the other Greek gods. Many years later, Diana learns of World War I from Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) and believes it’s the work of Ares. So she sets off into the outside world to find him and kill him in order to free mankind from his influence.

Behold Chris Pine in all his magnificent handsomeness. The strong jawline. The relaxed confidence. The way with a fedora (New Indiana Jones, anyone?) This is the Chris Pine of Wonder Woman, where he plays Steve Trevor, WWI spy and love interest of Gal Gadot’s Diana. After Trevor’s plane crashes off the coast of Diana’s island home, he becomes the first man to step foot on Themyscira. And Pine, already a star for his portrayal of Captain Kirk in the Star Trek reboot series, is terrific in the role, and great with Gadot. He turns Steve Trevor into one of the best non-super-powered characters in superhero movie history.

ScreenCrush editor-in-chief Matt Singer loves movies and has an unholy fascination with food inspired by movies. These are his stories.

It may be the title of the movie but the words “wonder” and “woman” are ever spoken in Wonder Woman. Until an underwhelming fight between two super-beings brings the film crashing back down to earth, Wonder Woman often feels less like a superhero movie than a modern fable, about a strong but sheltered young woman who discovers the pleasures and perils of the wider world. It’s presented with strong visual style and abundant heart by Patty Jenkins, and played with oozing charisma by its two well-cast stars, Chris Pine and Gal Gadot as the (not-technically-named-) Wonder Woman.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve quickly cycled through the various stages of superhero hype with Wonder Woman. First it was judging the trailers, then guessing at the potential box office, then responding to the initial buzz. And now, with fans and critics alike praising what Patty Jenkins and her team have put together, we can move to the final stage of the process: openly discussing the possibility of a sequel. Oh, those folks who haven’t seen the movie will catch up eventually. Right now it’s all about the next one.

Zack Snyder had so much additional material for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice that he delivered a three-hour director’s cut for the Blu-ray release. And after all those reports of reshoots and competing cuts, Suicide Squad arrived on home video with a decent amount of bonus footage — mostly featuring Jared Leto’s Joker. As for Wonder Woman, director Patty Jenkins says you shouldn’t expect to see any deleted scenes when the film hits DVD and Blu-ray…because there aren’t any deleted scenes, like, at all.

Acting can be a thankless business. With all the work, the rejection, the dealing with people you don’t get along with, the exhausting hours and press tours, it’s a wonder than any celeb can stick it out as long as some of our greatest stars have. Sometimes all that disappointment can push an actor to the brink — and then the right audition at the right time for a fantastic role can pull them back again. That’s exactly what happened to Gal Gadot, a.k.a. our new Wonder Woman: before she was cast, she almost quit acting altogether.

Following Monday night’s terrorist attack at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, Warner Bros. has officially canceled the London premiere of Wonder Woman, the studio’s highly-anticipated superhero film — and the first in over 10 years to feature a female lead. The news comes just one day after British Prime Minister Theresa May elevated the terrorist threat level from “severe” to “critical,” and announced that another attack could be “imminent.”

It’s funny how things tend to come in pairs. Just a few minutes after watching Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt star Titus Burgess perform a song from Disney’s Broadway adaptation of The Little Mermaid as part of this weekend’s Vulture Festival, I happened to read an interview with the Wonder Woman screenwriter who explains how his film was influenced by the Hans Christian Andersen classic. At this rate, I’ll be in the bathtub and humming along to “Under the Sea” by the time the sun goes down.