Wonder Woman Crosses $500 Million at Worldwide Box Office

Wonder Woman continues its march up the ladder of box-office titans, passing the $500 million dollar mark in theaters worldwide on Friday.

Any reservations that may have been been present about the performance of DC’s superhero origin story before it was released have rightfully vanished over the past couple of weeks. Wonder Woman continues to perform well thanks to fantastic critical word-of-mouth and overwhelming and widespread audience approval, dominating the month of June at the box office. As it enters it’s third weekend, Wonder Woman has now hit another major milestone.

As reported by Forbes, Wonder Woman had earned about $489 million worldwide as of Thursday, and early projections have the film clearing the bar needed to reach $500 million at the box office on Friday. The milestone makes director Patty Jenkins the fourth female director to ever reach that milestone. Sam Taylor-Johnson’s sexual drama Fifty Shades of Grey earned $571 million in 2015, Phyllida Lloyd’s musical adaptation of Mamma Mia earned $609 million in 2008, and Jennifer Yuh Nelson’s animated sequel Kung Fu Panda 2 earned $665 million in 2011. With no signs of slowing down, Wonder Woman is on track to surpass all of those totals, with a ceiling around $750 million worldwide.

After upsetting The Mummy with a second straight first place finish last weekend, Wonder Woman is expected to give up its box office crown to Cars 3 over Father’s Day Weekend. The film will add another $40 million in the United States, another phenomenally below-average drop from last weekend. It’ll settle into second place comfortably, barring a huge hold from Friday for Tupac biopic All Eyez on Me.

Among similar titles in the DC Extended Universe, Wonder Woman will almost certainly outgross the $668 million total of Man of Steel, with a slight chance of also surpassing the $745 million of Suicide Squad. Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice’s $873 million seems out of reach at the moment, but Wonder Woman was never expected to compete with such a major event film. Even then, the movie’s holding ability week-to-week is making its box office total more difficult to predict. The summer box-office battle will get much more competitive from here, with Transformers: The Last Knight, Despicable Me 3, and Spider-Man: Homecoming all arriving over the next three weeks. With excellent legs in the United States and more international territories for the film to open up in, there is still a long-shot chance that Wonder Woman could reach Dawn of Justice’s number.

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