“Wonder Woman” to Soar This Weekend, Possibly Earning the Biggest Opening for a Female Director

	Wonder Woman	$102 million
	Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie	$26 million
	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales	$24.3 million
	Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2	$14 million
	Baywatch	$8 million

After a concerning marketing campaign, fans and critics have taken matters into their own hands to express their excitement for the newest Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment blockbuster, share the good reviews and impressive Rotten Tomatoes score, and ensure the conversation is dominated by Wonder Woman — and with good reason. The film, the first female-led film in the current wave of superhero films and first solo film in the DC Extended Universe since 2013’s Man of Steel, is being raved about by those who’ve seen it (yours included) and those who are eager to see it starting tonight as it eyes to break some records and make an impression on the Hollywood landscape.

While the studio is being cautious, estimating an opening between $65 and $75 million, more ambitious predictions have it opening north of $100 million. Call it confidence or hope, it is doubtless that it would be thrilling to see this film do well in its opening, not only for the sake of the movie itself and excitement for the fans but for those at the studio and beyond as a point that female-led and directed films can be financially successful (even though this is a fact that’s been proven before, it’s apparently not been enough). After all, it’s already proven to be a critical success. With a certified fresh score of 93 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s already leagues ahead of the rest of the DCEU’s films, including Man of Steel (55), Batman v Superman (28), and Suicide Squad (25), and those who have seen it already have not been keeping quiet about their love for the film (as seen by over 800,000 tweets). This can only mean good things to encourage people to get to the theaters and see the film this weekend.

Warner Bros. Pictures

In terms of its box office, even an opening that is able to surpass $100 million will be the smallest opening for the DCEU (BvS made $166 million opening weekend as the biggest for the universe and Man of Steel made $116 million as the smallest so far), but that is only part of the equation. With so much riding on Wonder Woman (although it must be noted that a single film carrying so much weight is absurd, especially given the way male-dominated films have been allowed to fail without it having to mean something), a strong opening will be quite the success story for many reasons. As of now, Fifty Shades of Grey directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson marks the largest opening for a female-directed film, having made $93 million when it opened over President’s Day Weekend in 2015, although Patty Jenkins could very well break that record this weekend. It’s also set to be one of the largest openings for a female-led action film, perhaps not as large as the likes of The Hunger Games or the two most recent Star Wars films, but certainly the best opening for a female-led comic book film in recent memory (it will beat the openings of both Catwoman and Elektra combined).

	Opening Weekend	Current Gross	Facebook Likes	Tweets
Wonder Woman	N/A	N/A	1,525,772	826,906
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie	N/A	N/A	65,893	10,434
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales	$78.4m	$89.5m	38,783	148,365
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2	$146.5m	$344.3m	N/A	55,161
Baywatch	$23.1m	$31.8m	33,172	117,485

The other new film for the weekend is the (surprisingly) first adaptation of the incredibly popular children’s book series Captain Underpants. Hailing from DreamWorks Animation and featuring the voices of Kevin Hart, Thomas Middleditch, Ed Helms, and more, the film is looking at an opening of $25 million or a little more, which is surprisingly low for DreamWorks and an animated film (especially one based on a well-known IP) in general. With an opening like this, it will join the likes of Rise of the Guardians and Penguins of Madagascar rather than more impressive fare. It could very well be due to competition from the superhero films that also appeal to younger audiences, or simply because the film has not caught on quite yet (its marketing has been less than astounding). The one silver lining here is that animated films tend to have long legs in their theater lifespans.

20th Century Fox

Close on Captain Underpants’ tail will be Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, the fifth installment in Disney’s swashbuckling franchise. The film is eyeing a 60 percent drop in its second weekend after an opening over Memorial Day weekend almost precisely where it was expected to land. It will cross the $100 million mark domestically this weekend as its international total, just shy of $300 million, continues to rise. Globally, it’s currently at $387 million, far off the $1 billion mark it’s aiming for to join two of the other Pirates films in the franchise, but still with plenty more business to do in its future.

	Rotten Tomatoes		IMDb	Metacritic
	Critics	Users	Stars
Wonder Woman	93	N/A	8.5	76
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie	85	N/A	7.5	67
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales	30	71	7.1	39
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2	81	90	8.1	67
Baywatch	20	70	5.6	38

Bringing up the rear will be the successful Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and the far less successful Baywatch. The former is looking at a drop around 50 percent or so, pushing its domestic total past $350 million and its global total past $800 million, with the $1 billion mark still a ways from its grasp but certainly in sight. It’s still the fifth-highest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and it doesn’t seem likely it will surpass Captain America: Civil War but it is, in fact, Marvel’s second-highest sequel (out of the first sequels, at least), surpassing the likes of Iron Man 2, Winter Soldier, and Thor: The Dark World (the only one it hasn’t beaten is Avengers: Age of Ultron).

Baywatch, which opened far less than expected (and desired) last weekend, will fall in its second weekend, not even able to muster $10 million with a drop more than 50 percent. The film is at $31.8 million and will soon likely not see much more than that as it drowns in the ever-growing summer movie season.

Rounding out the rest of the top ten will be the likes of holdovers such as Alien: Covenant, Everything, Everything, and more.

(Sources: boxoffice.com, boxofficemojo.com, rottentomatoes.com, imdb.com, metacritic.com. Tweets and Likes represent figures for this week only. Figures represent numbers at time of writing, and may have changed. Tracking Board does not report Rotten Tomatoes user ratings for movies that have not yet seen wide release.)

Anya Crittenton | Associate Editor