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Reassessing WW84's Performance

Even Wonder Woman Is Prone to Covid

By SkylerPublished 2 years ago 12 min read
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I will not deny it - I loved Wonder Woman 1984! With that said, we always want to see things we are passionate about being able to thrive. Examples include your child in school, your favorite sports team, or a movie you like at the box office. Of course, the box office does not make or break your interest in a film - at least, it should not. The moment your favorite movie took a nose dive in its second weekend does not make you hate it all of a sudden. Hence, I am trying to say I wish Wonder Woman 1984 had a better time.

In 2017, Wonder Woman closed shop with over $412 million at the domestic box office, an international gross of $410 million, for a worldwide gross of over $822 million. Our sequel brought in $46 million domestically, $120 million internationally, for a worldwide gross of over $166 million. A 80% dip from its predecessor is not something you will or even can take to the bank. Let's not forget the sequel's production budget of $200 million. Put all feelings and opinions aside - Wonder Woman 1984 was a flop!

Maybe I am biased in my defense of the film's performance. Let's be objective here - bad reviews do not necessarily bankrupt a movie. Remember the unpopularity of Michael Bay's Transformers franchise? Yet, they made plenty of money until the fifth installment. Meanwhile, there are scores of Oscar-bait titles beloved by critics that set no box-office records. Case in point, Covid-19 is what killed Wonder Woman 1984!

Critics Were Not The Cause

Recall the critical reception of Patty Jenkins' sequel? According to the review aggregator - Rotten Tomatoes, Wonder Woman 1984 holds a 58% critic approval rating. Overall, a negative score. Yet, it sits higher than the controversial Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice with its 29% critic approval rating. Both films faced backlash and controversy, with vitriol hate-spewing from fans, more so for the latter. People were calling for the beheading of Zack Snyder. Yet, a smaller niche fanbase called for the removal of Patty Jenkins and or Geoff Johns. Critics be damned - Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice made roughly seven times more at the domestic box office than our Princess Diana's sequel did. Take note that haters and critics of Zack Snyder and the DCEU were warm to Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot. Perhaps I am giving fuel to the lowbrows out there saying, 'Wonder Woman 1984 was so bad that the horrible Batman v. Superman out-grossed it!' But again, critical reception is not the sole contributor to box office performance!

Films like The Croods: A New Age and Tenet did fair better critically. They also faired better at the box office by roughly 21%, or $12 million. However, a $12 million difference between two blockbusters is not a huge gap when they are already making tens of millions of dollars.

In one way, bad reviews did hurt the film's performance. Take your general audiences and people on the fence about seeing the movie. You are sitting there in December 2020 and seeing the numbers every day. By this time, there are over 18 million cases of Covid-19 and over 300,000 deaths caused by the virus. The vaccine is beginning to roll out but will not be ready nationwide until 2021. Here is some further context - we lost more Americans in less than a year to this virus than the Americans we lost in the Vietnam War. Many people couple this with the less than stellar reviews of Wonder Woman 1984 and conclude that it's not worth it. People do not want to risk their health, nay, their life for what is considered a sub-par film. We cannot judge people who made that decision - their right, their choice, their money.

The Covid-19 Economy

Let's Time Bomb back to 2020 and look at a few other items. Remember, the year started relatively normal until Covid-19 began erupting. Case after case, the United States began facing lockdowns by March of that year. All theatres close down, and the economy in the United States contracts. During the span of this time, there were no film releases nationwide. There is the exception of a few indie films, foreign films, and documentaries. Movie cinemas begin to slowly re-open in late August with releases like The New Mutants and Tenet.

What is interesting about the 2020 domestic box office are two films - Bad Boys For Life and Sonic The Hedgehog. Bad Boys for Life grossed over $204 million domestically. Sonic The Hedgehog grossed over $146 million domestically. No other films will make nine figures domestically in 2020! What is further intriguing is that both of these films opened before March. Usually, box office season is not at the beginning of the year. January is where movies go to die at the box office. People do not want to spend money after Christmas with all the shopping, get-togethers, and traveling. Plus, who wants to go out in the dead of winter to see a movie or not? On average, your top-grossing films drop in late spring to summertime or around Christmas. Basically, the movies in theaters when school is out make the most.

What is hampering all of these later 2020 films is that opened theatres were not operating at 100% capacity. Not every theater opened back up overnight. Strict guidelines were in place to limit social gatherings, a thing cinemas usually do or offer. I recall seeing Wonder Woman 1984 on opening weekend, and it was every other seat unless you came with someone. Just like how restaurants closed every other table/booth. Consider this - the first Wonder Woman film opened in 2017 in 4,165 theaters. The sequel opened in only 2,151 theaters. Eventually, the max theater count for Wonder Woman 1984 would be 2,218. Yikes! Already, this is a near 50% cut from its predecessor. No film after March 2020 opened in 3,000 theaters, not even Christopher Nolan's Tenet.

We can only estimate the effect this had on movie-goers. It is possible that your favorite theater was still closed. Perhaps, no theaters within a desirable distance were open. Who knows, maybe you live in a small rural town with only one theater, which remained closed. Do not forget the social act of going to the theater. Most people treat going to a movie as an event they take their lover/spouse to. Others go with their friends or family. Not a judgment call, but some think going to a movie alone is sad and pathetic. No doubt, there is excitement in seeing a movie with someone else. There is a shared experience and having someone to talk about the film with afterward. Outside of housed family, not all Americans saw and interacted with each other.

The Christmas release window did not help the film. If not for a pandemic, the film should have done modestly around the holiday season. No competition existed for the film, as it was number one at the box office for three weeks. However, kids were already out of school in a sense. Friends and families were not getting together for the holidays, especially those who lived in different states. We were still socially distanced from people who did not live in our immediate household. Of course, not everyone was, but a sizeable portion of the population was, as we can see the impact.

April to July saw double-digit unemployment. Imagine being out of work for several months and losing your savings. By Christmas time - unemployment is under 7%. America's economic response to Covid-19 was hardly...flattering. Many people who lost their jobs could not afford their rent or medical bills. We can pretend they are not part of that 7% by the end of the year. However, that does not mean they rebuilt their nest egg overnight and are spending their hard-earned cash on a Friday night IMAX screening of Wonder Woman 1984.

HBO Max Did Not Help Either

Maybe Warner Bros shot themselves in the foot with HBO Max. Many people are skipping the theaters for streaming instead. Again, some audiences are thinking - why risk my health when I can stay home. HBO Max is already over six months old - why pay to see the movie when subscribers already have access to the film.

James Gunn's The Suicide Squad in 2021 was a hit, critically. Audiences who hated the previous Suicide Squad from 2016 were much warmer to this installment. Fans of James Gunn were also pleased. With a 90% critical approval rating, the movie opened in over 4,000 theaters, it made more than Wonder Woman 1984. It made roughly $9 million more than Wonder Woman 1984 domestically, totaling only $1 million more in its worldwide gross. We come back to how critical reception does not equate to success. Without diving into too much detail on the why's of The Suicide Squad's performance, it too saw a simultaneous release in theaters and HBO Max. James Gunn even noted that streaming the film in the first month hurt the movie at the box office.

Perhaps WB was better off stalling the release of Wonder Woman 1984 to HBO Max, just like with 2022's The Batman. With this simultaneous dual release, box office revenue was siphoned. Covid-19 brought many changes and uncertainties. At one point, the public was not sure if movie theaters would ever fully open up, if at all. After months as shut-ins more and more people became streamers. It seemed possible that the cinema was dead and all new movies would come digitally. WB decided to cater to movie goers and this new market of stay-at-home streamers. Not a win for WB's bottom line maybe, but a win for people wanting to see the movie.

Outside of Theaters

Let us pick up the pieces and see if there is any hope for Wonder Woman 1984. After the opening weekend, Warner Bros. announced that HBO Max saw total viewing hours on the film's first day more than triple compared to a typical day in the previous month. Screen Engine later reported that 23% of viewers had subscribed to HBO Max to watch the film. The company also said that Wonder Woman 1984 was beating out Hamilton as the most-watched straight-to-streaming title of the year. One cannot help but wonder - 23% of what? How many subscribers did HBO Max already have? Samba TV reported that the film was streamed in over 4.3 million households before January. From December 25 - December 27, HBO Max saw an estimated sign-up of 554,000 users. Warner Media would report that nearly half of its HBO Max users watched the film on December 25. Half of how many subscribers? Again, who knows, as they are not open to disclosing numbers. Let us take those 4.3 million households, with HBO Max's monthly subscription of $14.99, that's roughly $65 million in the bank thanks to Wonder Woman 1984. However, Warner is looking for growth, as in how many new households did the film acquire? Parent company - AT&T noted how 41 million US subscribers count for HBO, and HBO Max came two years faster than the company's initial forecasts. AT&T CEO John Stankey attributed these figures, in part to, you guessed it, Wonder Woman 1984. Therefore, the powers that be seemed happy with the success the film gave their new platform, critical opinion aside - why shouldn't we?

On March 16, 2021, Wonder Woman 1984 became available across numerous digital platforms. Digital movies across the network do not function and chart as they do at the box office. There is lots of fluctuation, with no guarantee of debuting at the #1 spot. Case in point, Diana debuted at #3 in its first week, then dropped to #6 the following week. By the beginning of April, Wonder Woman 1984 was the most watched movie at home. It remained #1 for five consecutive weeks. Without any competition, Diana was the most trending thing in the spring. The film remained in the top 20 most watched at-home movies into late June 2021.

The film became available on 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD on March 30th, 2021. In the first week, it debuted at #1, selling over 500,000 units and making over $14 million. For five weeks, it was the #1 selling movie on DVD and Blu-Ray. It appears the physical and digital release played off of each other. Recall the digital release was slacking at first but went to #1 once the movie came to 4K, Blu-Ray, and DVD. Warner Bros also released a Wonder Woman 2-Film Collection, which made over $2 million in its lifetime. To date - Wonder Woman 1984 has sold over 600,000 DVDs, making over $15 million. In addition, it has sold over 900,000 Blu-Rays, making over $22 million. Within the first year of its release, the movie has made over $39 million. The sequel ended up being the #1 selling-movie on DVD and Blu-Ray for 2021! We see it outsell blockbusters like Godzilla vs. Kong, F9: The Last Saga, and even Marvel's Black Widow! If such a hated flop, than how is it beating these other beloved franchises and IPs? Sure, these numbers are a fraction of the first film's sales. However, the first film has been out longer, plus more people are moving over to digital purchases and streaming over physical copies of the film.

Conclusion

From a box-office point of view, yes, the film failed. We need to consider the context of the Covid-19 economy and how there was no expectation to do big numbers. Warner Bros knows and understands this. Yes, they could have scrapped the film entirely with this perception. If anything, that only would have lost them more money. However, it did great digitally and on DVD & Blu-Ray. AT&T credited HBO Max's success to the film. The one final proof in the pudding that the film is not a total flop - was announced days after the release that Warner Bros wanted to fast-track a third Wonder Woman installment with Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot. Plus, this time will be a traditional theatrical release. Sorry, but actual flops do not get sequel announcements, if so, where is the one to Son of The Mask?

If you are a fan of Wonder Woman 1984, please feel free to check out and read my other pieces on the film down below...

Making The Case for Steve Trevor's Return

Wonder Woman 1984 and Excess

Wonder Woman 1984 is a Romance...So What?

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About the Creator

Skyler

Full-time worker, history student and an avid comic book nerd.

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