The blockbuster film “Wonder Woman 1984” has raked in a whooping $5.5 million over the New Year’s holiday. The sequel also ensnared another $10.1 million from overseas markets, bringing its global total box office pay to $118.5 million.
Wonder Woman may be an iconic comic book character, but the film’s lackluster results aren’t that surprising given how severely coronavirus has upended the movie business. However, the weekend’s domestic grosses do represent a steep decline, signaling waning interest from fans, and are a far cry from the box office returns of pre-pandemic blockbusters. Stateside, “Wonder Woman 1984,” which is being released by Warner Bros., has earned $28.5 million.
The superhero sequel, which is currently suffering some social media backlash for not rising to the level of its beloved predecessor, is being simultaneously released on HBO Max in a bid to bolster the WarnerMedia streaming service and as a concession to a global health crisis that’s left the theatrical distribution landscape severely diminished, according to Variety. With a budget of $200 million, the film had better goose subscription numbers for the service to make up for the tens of millions it will likely lose at the box office.
Beyond “Wonder Woman 1984,” Universal and Dreamworks Animation’s “The Croods: A New Age” pulled in $2.2 million in its sixth week of release. That pushes the animated sequel’s domestic haul to $34.5 million and its global total to just under $115 million. The film is being released due to a pact between the studio and major exhibitors such as AMC and Cinemark by which the movies can get released premium video on-demand with two weeks of their theatrical debuts. In return, struggling theater chains get a cut of the digital revenues. Universal also released “News of the World,”a western that reunites Tom Hanks with his “Captain Philips” director Paul Greengrass. The film grossed $1.7 million, pushing its domestic total to $5.4 million. Netflix bought the international rights to the movie this winter. Hanks stars as a Civil War vet who must return a young girl who was captured by natives to her remaining family.
