Last year critics and analysts were voicing some concern for the future of Warner Bros. after its movies seemed stuck in a rut of either not making the studio money, or getting eviscerated in reviews from fans and movie critics alike, but Wonder Woman seems to have changed that. Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad were two of Warner Bros. biggest films a year ago, but both left many questioning if the DCEU was destined to fail. Though Wonder Woman was already on the horizon, a lot of people could not help letting cynicism color their belief that this would just be another disappointment for Warner Bros. and the DCEU would go the way of Fox’s attempts at building the Fantastic Four.


Here we are a year later, and Wonder Woman has shattered all expectations with its box office success. With $409.4 million now earned domestically, Wonder Woman gets another feather in its cap as the highest-grossing movie of the entire summer. The Patty Jenkins-directed superhero flick hardly fares much worse when you compare it to movies for the entire year so far, since it is still the second highest grossing movie domestically when looking at all of 2017.

This has been a much needed shot in the arm for movie theaters, as it has been noted that this summer’s box office earnings have been significantly down. Analysts were questioning what this meant for the industry, but apparently movie goers just really were not seeing much else that interested them, because they had no problem turning out for Wonder Woman. Combined with the DC movie’s great performance and the lackluster summer season for other films, this has propelled Warner Bros. to being the most successful studio of the summer at a total of $790 million.


Unsurprisingly, Disney was another big winner, claiming second place among studios for the summer with a total of $739 million. This was bolstered by movies with big expectations like Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2, and Spider-Man: Homecoming. So it’s not as if Warner Bros. had no competition for that top spot.


All of this is promising news for movie theaters who can now chalk up the weak summer season overall to the majority of the summer’s offerings just not grabbing the public, rather than viewers skipping out on theaters nowadays. Warner Bros. also must be happy to bounce back in such a big way. And of course, fans of the DCEU now have reason to be a lot more optimistic about the fate of the superhero universe going forward, continuing this November with the release of Justice League.