Powered by a 52% female demographic (positively unheard of for a superhero movie), a Rotten Tomatoes score in the 90’s and a straight A Cinemascore, Gal Gadot put the gold bracelets to good use and scored a historic USD $100.5 million opening in North America and another USD $122 million overseas (Lebanon, you sure showed them, didn’t you?). China was responsible for USD $36 million of the overseas take.

“It’ll never work. It takes place in WWI, it has a female superhero, it’s dark, it’s grainy, the TV version was pure camp and DC comic adaptions just don’t work”. I heard that from an exhibitor earlier in the year when I spoke to him about “Wonder Woman” and its boxoffice prospects. Funny how things change. I saw that same theatre owner (you know who you are) post a story on LinkedIn on Friday lauding the amazing success of the film.  Faithful readers of Celuloid Junkie will remember that we went out on a limb very early in the “Wonder Woman” game and predicted USD $100 million when everyone else was wallowing in the USD $50-60 million pool. I guess moviegoers did want to see a female superhero movie with a female filmmaker after all. Fancy that.

Elsewhere, Fox/DK’s “Captain Underpants” was more like Captain Underperformer as the film came below expectations with USD $23.5 million, which was especially disappointing considering the lack of family fare in the marketplace. However, the film was made for a shoestring $40 million and should still turn a profit for Dreamworks, especially adding in overseas boxoffice, which by the way would be translated as “Captain Mutandes” in Italy. There’s your fun fact to know and tell for the day.  You’re welcome.

In other items of note…

• “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” is now up to USD $500 million worldwide (although just USD $114 million in North America).  China leads the take with USD $142 million.  The film dropped 66% Stateside, which astonishingly was not the biggest plummet on the boxoffice board this week.  More on that in a minute.
• “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol 2” passed the USD $800 million mark worldwide (USD $355 million N.A.)
• “Baywatch” dropped an acceptable 54% in its second week.  However, the film only sits at USD $41 million and its initial overseas runs are so far no day at the beach, including Germany where they caught on quickly to the fact that this stars The Rock rather than The Hoff.
• The following is not a typo-Fox’s ironically titled “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul” fell a whopping 72% this past weekend.  Definitely not in it for the long haul.
• Lionsgate/Pantelion’s “3 Idiotas” was muerto at the boxoffice with only USD $600K in 350 theatres in the US.  

Now let’s see what the second weekend in June has in store for the world’s moviegoers.

“The Mummy” (U)—Universal has started remaking their 1930’s/40’s stable of monster movies and the latest is a redux of “The Mummy”, this time starring Tom Cruise, Russell Crowe and Sofia Boutella in the title role.  The story surrounds a  Middle Eastern mummy let loose on modern day London.  As a side note, what’s with all the Universal monster movies taking place in London?  What did the Square Mile ever do to you, Carl Laemmle.  But I digress.

The last time Universal blew the dust off one of their legendary horror classics it was “Dracula Untold”, which managed a USD $23 million opening in 2014.  Still to come are “Bride of Frankenstein”, “The Wolfman”, “The Invisible Man” and “Werewolf of London”.  Actually I just made that last one up so you have that Warren Zevon song stuck in your head for the rest of the day.   

The Verdict:  Gone are the days that a Tom Cruise film was a guaranteed, take-it-to-the-bank, I’m heading to William Hill USD $100 million.  Besides the “Mission: Impossible” series, “Oblivion”s USD $37 million opening is the highest the actor has managed since 2005’s “War of the Worlds”, 12 years ago. Most in the industry originally had this opening in the USD $45 million range but something doesn’t feel right about “The Mummy”. Namely, no industry professional I’ve spoken to who isn’t on the hill in Universal City thinks we need another Mummy movie. That tends to be a bit of an impediment to success.  $32 million. Followed by a quick burn.

“It Comes at Night” (A24)—First time feature film director Trey Edward Stults helms Joel Edgerton in a thriller/horror offering about a man trying to save his family from both a global attack and unwelcome visitors.

The Verdict:  The main thing this movie going for it, other than the always reliable Edgerton, is the fact that there hasn’t been a horror film of any substance since “Get Out”.  The again we said the same thing last week about “Captain Underpants” and the dearth of animated titles and that underperformed. This has a chance to hit double digits so we’ll be optimistic and say USD $10 million.

ALSO OPENING

• Fox Searchlight has a limited run of Rachel Weisz in the appropriately titled, “My Cousin Rachel”, based on the classic novel by Daphne du Maurier.  
• Bleecker Street goes limited with “Megan Leavey”, the true story of a US Marine fighting to adopt the military dog she served with in Iraq, starring Kate Mara.