Wonder Woman 1984 International Box Office Opening Lower Than Expected

Wonder Woman 1984 was projected to earn about $60 million in its international box office debut, but it will fall short of that due to a soft opening in China. The film will debut on HBO Max and in theaters domestically on Christmas Day, but this weekend the film opened in 32 markets internationally. France, Netherlands, Italy, and Germany, are all missing the debut due to COVID-19 restriction. The film is opening in the UK, though only a quarter of the nation’s theaters are open and London’s are closed entirely. But Wonder Woman 1984‘s success was largely reliant on China, where it garnered only $18.8 million. That disappointing number is in part due to last-minute theater closures in some areas of the country. Wonder Woman 1984 is now expected to earn $38.5 million in its international debut.

Wonder Woman 1984 currently has an 86% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. The critical consensus is, “Great Hera! Wonder Woman 1984 is an epic dose of heart and vibrant escapism that proves there are still unexpected thrills to be found in superhero cinema.” You can watch the film’s opening scene here.

In his review, ComicBook.com‘s Brandon Davis writes, “Wonder Woman 1984 learns from the critiques of its excellent predecessor, delivering a much more contained finale by comparison to its extravagant and over-sized blow-out third act in the first movie, but it would have benefited from some more character work, sharper pacing and conclusions, and, well, a little bit more Wonder Woman. The team delivers an exciting and inspirational new tale, with a surprising level of worldly commentary considering when it was shot, along with a much-needed message of hope — all complemented strongly by the always empathic musical score from Hans Zimmer.”

Star Gal Gadot has expressed her support for Warner Bros. deciding to debut Wonder Woman 1984 on HBO Max. “Look, if you would have told me a year ago that that’s gonna be the case, I would flip out and be super angry. But the truth of the matter is we just didn’t have other better options,” Gadot told Digital Spy. “We felt like we were sitting on this movie for such a long time, we shot the movie in 2018, we started promoting the movie in 2019, we pushed the movie four times. We felt like the movie was so relevant to what’s happening in the world right now that you come to a place at a certain time where you’re like, ‘OK, I just want people to watch the movie.’”

Wonder Woman 1984 opens on Christmas Day, December 25th.