Post by politicidal on Nov 12, 2017 19:10:15 GMT
In the absence of Superman (because he's friggin dead-ish) and the success of the movie Wonder Woman, I'm wondering if her increased role judging by the trailers (and positive notice about her from early reactions so far) will in fact aid Justice League during its run. The trailers had been emphasizing her and the Amazons.
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I didn't catch this the other day, but Wonder Woman has now earned $821.75 million worldwide, including $412.6m in North America alone. That puts its domestic and worldwide totals just above the earnings of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man. Said Sam Raimi blockbuster earned $403.7m domestic and $821.71m worldwide back in 2002. This does not account for inflation, overseas expansion or 3D/IMAX ticket price bumps. But it does mean that the Patty Jenkins-directed/Gal Gadot-starring blockbuster, which has earned an insane 3.99x weekend-t0-final domestic multiplier, is now the biggest non-sequel and biggest origin story comic book superhero grosser of all time in North America and around the world.
And it's currently the year's second-biggest domestic grosser, behind Walt Disney's Beauty and the Beast. While I don't expect Thor: Ragnarok to get anywhere near those domestic figures, I think we can all assume that Star Wars: The Last Jedi will gross at least $504.1 million in North America to be the year's biggest North American hit. Now the question is whether Justice League, opening just two weeks from today (or two weeks from last night, if we're being honest), will make a run at Wonder Woman's domestic and/or worldwide totals.
The worldwide figure is a bit more reasonable, as Suicide Squad made $745 million worldwide last year without even playing in China while Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice earned $873m globally. But it's frankly a long shot at this point that the Zack Snyder/Joss Whedon superhero sequel will earn above $400m in North America. Heck, unless reviews are unexpectedly strong (no, I haven't seen it yet), it's a coin toss as to whether the film will make more in North America than It ($324.8m thus far, sans 3D), although that says more about It than it does about Justice League. And, if we're being honest, I frankly don't want Justice League to gross more in North America than Wonder Woman.
No, that's not because I don't want the movie to be a relative hit. Remember, I'm the guy who likes Sucker Punch and kinda-sorta liked the "ultimate edition" of Dawn of Justice. But here's the rub: If Justice League fails to top the domestic gross of Wonder Woman, no matter how much box office glory it finds overseas, the 2017 year will likely end with the top three domestic earners being Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Beauty and the Beast and Wonder Woman. So yeah, the top three North American earners will all be female-led fantasy blockbusters.
You don't need me to explain how Beauty and the Beast and Wonder Woman count as female-led fantasy films, one being a comic book superhero movie starring Gal Gadot and the other being a period-piece musical romance starring Emma Watson. Even if you argue that Star Wars: The Force Awakens was initially sold as a Star Wars movie where Daisy Ridley was merely one of the leads among the likes of John Boyega and Harrison Ford, The Last Jedi marketing campaign is absolutely centering its focus on Ridley's Jedi-in-training Rey (and Adam Driver's wannabe-Sith Kylo Ren). So yeah, assuming The Last Jedi is the year's biggest (or, barring a fluke, second-biggest) domestic grosser ahead of Wonder Woman, 2017 will offer conclusive, incontrovertible proof that A) female-led films are not box office poison and B) female-led fantasy films can do as well, if not better, than the male variations.
The idea of the year's top-grossing movie being headlined by a female lead shouldn't be considered such a rarity. The top two movies of 2016 (Rogue One and Finding Dory) and 2015 (The Force Awakens and Jurassic World) were technically female-led films (yes, Bryce Dallas Howard is the lead in Jurassic World). In 2013, two of the top three domestic grossers (Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Frozen) were female-led entertainments. In 2010, two of the top four (Alice in Wonderland and Twilight Saga: Eclipse) were fantasies completely about the hero's journey of its female protagonists.
And heck, from 1963 to 1970, five of those eight years (Cleopatra, Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, Funny Girl and Love Story) were female-led entertainments. Even the 1970's had the aforementioned two-handers like Love Story (1970), The Exorcist (1973), Grease (1978) and Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) leading their respective years. It wasn't until the post-Star Wars/Jaws wave of big-budget manly blockbusters became the weapon of choice that macho adventures and manly dramas began to so regularly dominate the charts.
And, as you know, the rise in the four-quadrant, all-ages global blockbuster in the early 2000's eventually caused even the smaller-scale female-led offerings (the romantic comedies, the melodramas, the thrillers, etc.) to become an endangered species. We're at a point where a movie like Trainwreck is considered an event and Bring It On is a relic of a bygone era. But as we've seen in the past, and as we're seeing now, if you make bigger scale female-led offerings, audiences are, to use hip, online lingo, "here for it." They showed up for Mamma Mia!, Twilight, Bridesmaids, The Hunger Games, Frozen, Lucy, The Force Awakens, Hidden Figures, Girls Trip and Wonder Woman.
I obviously don't want Justice League to flop any more than I want it to be a bad or disappointing movie. I don't generally root for failure (even with films I don't like) and I'd rather write about good news for big movies than bad news for big movies. But, even aside from the current political/social context at play, we're well past the point of having to hold up every major female-led movie as a kind of litmus test. Blade Runner 2049 was about as big of a flop as Ghostbusters, neither of which failed as badly as King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. Yet which film's failure is held up as meaningful?
It may be symbolic, but I want 2017 to end with Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Beauty and the Beast and Wonder Woman resting atop the hill as the three biggest-grossing domestic hits of 2017. And for that to happen, Justice League, which will certainly get a boost from Wonder Woman's popularity, must earn no more than a sad/shameful $412.5 million in North America. Unless the superhero team-up sequel lets Henry Cavill's Superman keep his mustache, in which case retract everything I just said!
www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2017/11/03/why-i-hope-justice-league-fails-to-top-wonder-woman-at-the-domestic-box-office/#29ad19c2d6b6