wonder woman

Did any new releases come out this weekend? I honestly can’t remember. Someone mentioned that there was a new Marvel movie in theaters - one featuring some sort of Spider-Person - but that can’t be right. I feel like I would’ve seen that, perhaps promoted on an unprecedented level for any superhero movie? Hmm. Well, anyways, here’s the weekend box office estimates as of Sunday afternoon:

It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for, Edgar Wright fans: did the filmmaker’s action-packed Baby Driver score big with audiences? Or does this weekend belong to sequels, sequels, and more sequels? This weekend was always going to belong to Despicable Me 3— it’s a big hit with the kiddos, don’t you know— but there’s definitely some room for optimism in how the rest of the weekend Top 10 shook out. Here’s the numbers as of Sunday afternoon:

Another weekend, another Weekend Box Office Report! While it won’t surprise you to find out that Michael Bay’s latest episode of Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots won the weekend, the specifics of that win come with enough asterisks to make even Barry Bonds blush. It was a terrible weekend for Transformers: The Last Knight one on continent and a record-breaking opening on another, which just goes to show how confusing this whole box office thing can be at times. Here’s the projected numbers as of Sunday afternoon:

It’s a pleasant Sunday afternoon in the world, which means it’s time for your weekend box office updates! While this was a disappointing weekend overall for a handful of new releases, there’s good news to be had: after a disappointing $144 million total gross last weekend, the box office bounced back to $187 million total over the past few days. That takes some of the pressure off Wonder Woman to, you know, save the summer blockbuster as we know it. Here’s the totals as of Sunday afternoon:

If you only look at the surface numbers, this was a pretty predictable week at the box office. Wonder Woman did well, The Mummy did not, and everything else shook out accordingly. That being said, there’s some pretty interesting narratives emerging in the how and why of this weekend’s box office report. Let’s take a look at the rankings as of Sunday afternoon and dive into some of the specifics:

Some 'Wonder'-ful news for one of this year's biggest blockbusters.

It was the Facebook post that launched a thousand (give or take) s— fits. When the Alamo Drafthouse announced a special women-only screening of Wonder Woman, the outrage from misogynist bros was swift, immediate and entirely insane, with many bizarrely labeling the event “sexist.” But those toxic reactions didn’t quite have the intended effect and only made the screening more popular among women, spurring the Drafthouse to turn it into a national event, much to the chagrin of all those whiny sexist internet trolls — including one particularly angry man who decided it might be more effective to bypass theater management entirely and take his complaints straight to the mayor of Austin, Texas.

Acting can be a thankless business. With all the work, the rejection, the dealing with people you don’t get along with, the exhausting hours and press tours, it’s a wonder than any celeb can stick it out as long as some of our greatest stars have. Sometimes all that disappointment can push an actor to the brink — and then the right audition at the right time for a fantastic role can pull them back again. That’s exactly what happened to Gal Gadot, a.k.a. our new Wonder Woman: before she was cast, she almost quit acting altogether.

Ladies: Imagine going to see Wonder Woman in a movie theater filled with nothing but other women. Sounds fun, right? The Alamo Drafthouse certainly thinks so, which is why the geniuses behind our favorite theater chain organized a special women-only screening of the highly-anticipated superhero film at their downtown Austin location. Unfortunately (but predictably, which is just as unfortunate), a whole bunch of dudes are acting like big whiny weenies about it — hilariously oblivious to how their sexist attitudes further prove the need for this event.

It wouldn’t be a superhero movie without a glowy weapon of some sort. Wonder Woman has a sword and a shield, but her coolest weapon is her lasso of truth, which makes whomever is stuck in it unable to lie — and also acts as a pretty useful fighting tool on its own. World War I soldiers probably aren’t going to expect to get roped by a screaming Amazon during battle.

Up until a few months ago, we knew that Wonder Woman would take place during World War I, and that the primary antagonist was probably something metaphorical like the evils of war itself, but in January we learned that the main villain of the movie would literally be war, personified. Ares is one of Diana’s primary antagonists in the comics, and we actually saw a little bit of him in the short TV spot that director Patty Jenkins debuted last night.

From horror to comedy to action, here are the must-see films hitting theaters this spring.