Wonder Woman 1984 is finally in theaters, but is the film's run a failure so far? The sequel to Wonder Woman, Patty Jenkins' successful 2017 film, has been highly anticipated for quite some time. From the film's very first trailer release in late 2019 to the announcement of Chris Pine's return as the deceased Steve Trevor, there was a lot of hype surrounding Wonder Woman 1984 as fans geared up to see what was next in store for Gal Gadot’s Diana Prince.
However, the film's road to theaters wasn't exactly what anyone would call smooth sailing. In the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Wonder Woman 1984, like so many films, was pushed back from its initial release date in June 2020, delayed to August and then October before Warner Bros. settled on a December 25 theatrical release. But, with the pandemic still a threat to health and safety, the executives at AT&T and WarnerMedia decided on a different approach. Wonder Woman 1984 would be released on HBO Max and in theaters on the very same day, setting the stage for a very unique kind of viewing experience for fans and a new and shocking trajectory for the film industry.
However, the streaming release didn't prevent Wonder Woman 1984 from making money at the box office. Here is the breakdown of the film's box office run, whether it was a success or a failure, how it affected HBO Max's subscriber numbers, and what it means for the streamer moving forward.
Wonder Woman 1984's Box Office Explained
Wonder Woman 1984 cost Warner Bros. over $200 million to produce. The film’s theatrical release put it in an odd situation, though it can be argued that nothing has been very normal with regards to theater openings due to the global pandemic. At the domestic box office, Wonder Woman 1984 has grossed $37.7 million since its release on December 25, 2020. That number is much higher internationally, with a current intake of $110.7 million, bringing its global numbers to $148.4 million overall. Given that the film was released a bit earlier in international markets, Wonder Woman 1984 had a bit of a head start and not a lot of competition considering the fact that most every movie release has been delayed.
In the UK, the film has grossed an estimated total of $1.15 million since its opening on December 18. The film’s release in European countries — including Spain, Portugal, Croatia, Ukraine, Iceland, Slovakia, Serbia and Montenegro — has earned it a whopping total of $5.9 million so far. Throughout Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Wonder Wonder 1984 has tallied approximately $6.39 million since December 17. In Latin America, the film opened in just three countries (Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico), but grossed more than it did in Europe, earning around $10.5 million thus far. However, the sequel made the most in Australia and China, earning a total gross of $17.6 million and $25 million, respectively.
Was Wonder Woman 1984 A Box Office Failure (Even With COVID-19)?
By typical industry standards, the box office numbers for Wonder Woman 1984 aren’t very spectacular or even exceptional. In a normal year, the numbers would be considered abysmal. However, the pandemic obviously thwarted what would have otherwise been a regular run for the sequel film, but theater closures and stay-at-home orders prevented that from happening. In short, it was (and still is) relatively unsafe to be in theaters. Plus, there are only about 35% of theaters open and operating in some capacity, and so the pandemic has greatly affected Wonder Woman 1984’s box office numbers. With all that in mind, the superhero sequel was never going to make what 2017’s Wonder Woman made in its first weekend of release, having grossed over $100 million back then.
Now that it’s been over a month since it debuted in the U.S. and internationally, one can argue that the film has been a box office success for a few reasons. The first being that Wonder Woman 1984 exceeded initial box office expectations. In its opening weekend, the film made $16.7 million domestically, whereas projections put its opening gross in the $10-$15 million range. The movie did better than Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, which only made $9.35 million during its opening weekend a few months earlier. There’s also the fact that WW84 simultaneously debuted on HBO Max and it’s possible the film could have made a bit more at the box office if it hadn’t been readily available for audiences on the streaming service.
Of course, the film underperformed at the Chinese box office, making only $18.8 million initially, overshadowed by the action film The Rescue. What’s more, the film’s box office numbers dropped in the weeks following its release, which is typical even in non-COVID times. However, some of the downward box office momentum could be attributed to the searing negative reviews of Wonder Woman 1984, which also saw its Rotten Tomatoes score dip to 60%. Financially speaking, however, the film continues bringing in a decent amount of money at the box office and its earnings are pretty good when factoring in the unprecedented roadblocks.
Was Wonder Woman 1984 A Success For HBO Max?
In short, yes it was. At least according to HBO Max, Wonder Woman 1984 brought the streaming app an additional 17.2 million subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2020, which boosted the subscriber counts for HBO Max and HBO to 41.5 million. In addition, Nielsen recently revealed that the film was viewed 14.9 million times, with a total of 2.3 billion minutes watched for the week of December 21-27, 2020. The numbers basically reveal that demand was high for Wonder Woman 1984 and that subscribers may not have signed up for HBO Max if the film wasn’t on the platform. That’s good news for the streaming service, which debuted in the spring of last year.
Wonder Woman's HBO Max Performance Is More Important Than Its Box Office
Wonder Woman 1984 was the first movie to get a simultaneous streaming and theatrical release. The move by AT&T and WarnerMedia was shocking at first, but it was a decision that made sense considering that the world was still in the throes of the pandemic and theaters were either closed or not functioning at full capacity. There’s also the fact that audiences may not be willing to head back to theaters at all this year for health and safety reasons, despite a growing number of vaccinations. In that vein, theater releases are still not going to be what they were pre-pandemic.
Ultimately, Wonder Woman 1984 effectively worked as a way to test out the HBO Max/theatrical release model that the company will now be using for all of its releases in 2021. The sequel helped boost the streamer’s subscriber number by a large amount, which means good things for the future of HBO Max, which will be releasing the likes of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the musical In the Heights, and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune. Wonder Woman 1984’s success on HBO Max was always going to be more important than its box office anyway, especially considering that the numbers are not a true reflection of what they could have been during a non-COVID era. Knowing that audiences will pay to subscribe and watch highly-anticipated films like Wonder Woman 1984 bodes well for the streamer in the months to come.
