In comic books and cartoons, Wonder Woman sometimes gets around via an invisible plane. But it turns out, she doesn’t need it to fly to some pretty lofty cinematic heights.
Wonder Woman soared to the top of the box office this weekend, using those nifty bracelets of hers to deflect anyone who’d try to take her down. Her namesake movie surpassed expectations earned 103.1 million in North America. She proved that her appeal goes beyond the ol’ red, white and blue, too, chalking up another $122.5 million overseas. All told, superherodom’s grand dame earned a grand total of $225.6 million.
The film proved that female superheroes are not box office poison (even when one of them has a nemesis called “Dr. Poison”). Wonder Woman banked the highest opening of any female-fronted superhero movie in history, though admittedly the competition wasn’t exactly robust. (According to Box Office Mojo, the nearest comic book competitor would be Ghost in the Shell, which collected a modest $18.7 million in its debut earlier this year.) It also gave Patty Jenkins the distinction of being the first female director to helm a movie that made in excess of $100 million in its debut.
Another movie taking its theatrical bow, the toilet-humor obsessed Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, earned a flush $23.5 million—a bit under what most prognosticators were betting. At this rate, a Second Epic Movie may be down the drain already.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales dug up another estimated $21.6 million worth of booty to take third place and to crest the $100 million mark. Johnny Depp’s fifth turn as Capt. Jack Sparrow has now hooked $114.6 million in North America. On the downside for the franchise, it lost nearly two-thirds of its audience in its second week out, which means the one-time sturdy craft is taking on water. But shed no tears for Jack and Co., because Dead Men has raked in $386.6 million, ahem, overseas, pushing its international cume past the half-billion mark already. (I don’t think anyone would be surprised if Capt. Jack returns to helm his beloved Black Pearl for a sixth high-seas adventure somewhere in the future, even though the latest sequel ended with a happily ever after finale of sorts to supposedly close out the franchise.)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 slid into the box office’s fourth slot with $9.7 million, or thereabouts. The sturdy superhero vehicle has lingered in the Top Five for five straight weeks.
Closing out the Top Five is Baywatch, which squeezed another soggy $8.5 million from the box office’s choppy waters.
Will Wonder Woman be able to win for a second week? Perhaps. But another powerful woman—this one in the shape of The Mummy‘s nasty villainess (who fights the equally well-preserved Tom Cruise)—may have something to say about that.
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