Wonder Woman 1984 Surpasses $100 Million At Worldwide Box Office

Warner Bros. announces Wonder Woman 1984 has passed the $100 million mark at the global box office, marking a significant milestone for the DC Extended Universe sequel. Once again featuring Gal Gadot in the title role, and with director Patty Jenkins at the helm, Wonder Woman 1984 was released on HBO Max and in theaters in the U.S. on Christmas Day. It debuted in theaters only in overseas markets, allowing audiences to attend in countries like Australia and New Zealand, where the coronavirus pandemic has largely been controlled.

The movie’s same day release was the first of many for WB, which will follow the same strategy for all 17 of its major releases in 2021, at least in the U.S. Many were skeptical about the plan, citing HBO Max’s relatively small subscriber numbers compared to competitors like Netflix and Disney+. However, it’s already paid off for WB, with Wonder Woman 1984 managing to be the most streamed original movie in 2020, when compared to first week viewing results for other releases like Soul and Hamilton. Now, it seems the film isn’t doing too badly at the box office, either.

WB has announced (via Deadline) that Wonder Woman 1984 has passed a key milestone at the global box office, crossing the $100 million mark by New Year’s Eve. In a statement by Warner Bros. Domestic Distribution President Jeff Goldstein and International Distribution President Andrew Cripps, the movie was hailed for getting “film lovers” back in theaters. Goldstein and Cripps also congratulated the key cast and crew members for the film’s success in such a difficult climate. Read Warner Bros.’ full statement below:

Congratulations to Patty Jenkins, Gal Gadot, Chuck Roven and the entire cast and crew who made Wonder Woman 1984, allowing fans and film lovers to return to the thrilling experience of being at the movies. Audiences around the world where markets are open have been showing up to watch the next chapter in Diana Prince’s action-packed story.

Wonder Woman 1984‘s box office numbers illustrate how much the theater industry has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The first Wonder Woman, released in 2017, crossed the $100 million mark in its opening weekend, and this movie would have been expected to beat that number if 2020 had been unaffected by the pandemic. Instead, Wonder Woman 1984 will be lucky to make back its reported budget of $200 million. However, this new information should lessen Warner Bros.’ concerns about that.

The company’s same day release strategy proves WB is more concerned with getting subscribers for HBO Max at this point, which Wonder Woman 1984 has helped them achieve, gaining 554,000 new subscribers over its first weekend on the streaming service. Warner Bros. likely considers the movie’s box office numbers a resounding success, given less than half of movie theaters in the U.S. are even open, and numbers across the world are down. Overall, it seems like the new release model has been a success when compared with the alternative of Wonder Woman 1984 making very little and not being seen by at-home audiences until later in 2021.