Thursday Night Previews: Wonder Woman has Wonderful $11 million Start

June 2, 2017

Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman had the third best previews for 2017 so far at $11 million. Only Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 ($17.0 million) and Beauty and the Beast ($16.4 million) have topped it, while it is double what Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales earned just last weekend. This represents the biggest previews for a movie directed by a woman, surpassing Fifty Shades of Grey and I'm very happy this film took away a record from Fifty Shades. So what does this tell us about the film’s box office chances? Sadly, not much. It is right were most people were expecting, so I don’t feel the need to adjust our prediction, but there are a lot of unknown factors that could affect the weekend number. Firstly, the film’s reviews are 93% positive and the word-of-mouth should be just as strong. However, the Fangirl Effect could frontload the film’s box office numbers, thus hurting its legs. There have not been enough female led superhero movies to come out to make a judgment at this time. At the moment, $100 million seems safe, but that could change this time tomorrow when the Friday estimates come in and that number could drop to $90 million or rise to $120 million. Hopefully it is the latter.

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie earned $650,000 during its previews. This looks terrible next to Wonder Woman, but it is better than most second-tier digitally animated films manage. On the downside, this is barely more than half the $1.2 million The Boss Baby earned earlier this year, but that film also didn't have to deal with this level of competition. I think the reviews will help it match our $31 million prediction, although it might be close.

- Wonder Woman Comparisons
- Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie Comparisons

Filed under: Midnight Previews, Wonder Woman, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, The Boss Baby, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, Beauty and the Beast