‘Wonder Woman 1984’ director blames HBO Max release for paltry box office returns

Patty Jenkins, director of last year’s “Wonder Woman 1984,” believes the movie’s release on HBO Max was the cause of disappointing returns at the box office for the highly anticipated flick.

Following the success of 2017’s “Wonder Woman,” which made $821 million worldwide in theaters, the 2020 sequel was poised for similar results before the COVID-19 pandemic. The movie, originally planned for an October debut, was pushed to Christmas.

But weeks before its release, Warner Bros. announced “Wonder Woman 1984” would be the first of its movies to debut on HBO Max to coincide with the theater debut, McClatchy News reported.

This, Jenkins said Thursday during a panel at CinemaCon, “was detrimental to the movie,” Deadline reported.

“I don’t think it plays the same on streaming, ever,” she said, according to Deadline. She later added, “I make movies for the big-screen experience.”

The sequel, panned by many reviewers with a 59% rating through Rotten Tomatoes’ aggregate of movie critics, made $166 million worldwide. Many movie theaters remained closed during Christmas last year as COVID-19 cases again surged across the United States.

About 17.2 million people activated their HBO Max accounts in the last quarter of 2020, coinciding with the “Wonder Woman 1984” release, Bloomberg reported. This was double the previous quarter.

Nearly half of HBO Max subscribers watched the movie on its premiere date, and it broke records for the streaming service, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

But the streaming release also led to a horde of people pirating it, allowing others to watch it for free online. TorrentFreak reported “Wonder Woman 1984” was the most torrented movie for three straight weeks and was among the top 10 most pirated through April.

It faced a similar fate as Marvel’s “Black Widow,” which premiered in theaters and Disney+ this summer. The star of that movie, Scarlett Johansson, later filed a lawsuit against Disney alleging the Disney+ release breached her contract, CNN reported.

Jenkins, who will also direct the third “Wonder Woman” movie as well as “Star Wars: Rogue Squadron,” called her movie’s release “the best choice in a bunch of bad choices” but ultimately one that was a “heartbreaking experience,” according to IGN.

This story was originally published August 27, 2021 at 11:53 AM.