Girl Power in the Movies

A few days ago, Wonder Woman released to theaters (June 2, 2017) and took the box office totals into six figures, beating out the opening weekends of titles like Guardians of the Galaxy, The Avengers, Thor and Man of Steel. It’s also the first film directed by a female (Patty Jenkins) to (barely) crash through the $100 million dollar goal for its opening weekend, with $100.5 million domestic and another $122.5 million overseas.

And, of course, it features a female protagonist (Gal Gadot). Other superhero movies with a female lead weren’t even close. Remember Elektra? 12.8 million. Supergirl? Didn’t even get to $8 million. And then there was Catwoman. Say what you will about that much maligned movie, it did better than the previous two I mentioned, chalking up $16.7 million.

Another factor is even though other DC Comics movies have done better, Wonder Woman is building buzz as many people are spreading the word that this is—actually—a good movie. We join that opinion, here are Parent Previews. We appreciated the role model played by Gal Gadot, and the balance she strikes between compassion and the need to fix a bad situation.

But what does this mean for future action movies? Will there be a shift towards more women in leading roles? Comic books are full of male protagonists, so will Hollywood have to dig a little deeper to find their next big female action hero? And how does all this fit into the bigger picture of why we even like action movies? Comic book movies? Are we getting too many of these? And what are children learning from them?

We won’t pretend to have all the answers, but in our conversation with Dr. Christopher Gildemeister from the Parent Television Council in Los Angeles, Donna and I (Rod) discussed what this box office success may mean to the industry, to fans (Christopher is in that category), to women (that’s Donna’s contribution) and to families. So be sure to listen to the Parent Previews Podcast: Girl Power in the Movies.

Rod Gustafson
Parent Previews Founder