Wonder Woman has been around for 75 years. For decades, her fans have been begging for a movie, but despite their best efforts studios chose to overlook her and other famous female heroines in favor of mostly just reusing the same male characters, sometimes over and over again. They didn't think a superhero movie with a woman lead would sell tickets, instead of throwing women a bone every now and then by placing a single female superhero in a group of men. Wonder Woman proved them wrong in a major way. Her movie broke the record for the biggest domestic opening for a female director ever with an estimated $100.5 million dollar opening weekend. The record was previously held by Sam Taylor-Johnson for 2015's “Fifty Shades of Grey”. As of Wednesday, the film has made over $675 million dollars worldwide and that number continues to grow as fans of all ages and genders flock to see the film. This means it has surpassed other comic book movies such as Man of Steel which raked in $668 million and the $677 million of Doctor Strange. It also surpassed Mamma Mia!s $609.8 million dollar box office, which was the previous highest-grossing live-action movie by a female director. This movie, with everything from its amazing fight scenes to its implementation of feminist ideology, was a triumph, and we wouldn’t of had it if not for its female director Patty Jenkins.
Patty Jenkins has been trying to get this movie made since the early 2000's after she wrote and directed the film Monster that Charlize Theron won the Best Actress Oscar for in 2004. She was hired in 2011 to direct the Thor sequel, but eventually dropped out of the project over “creative differences” with the studio. She bounced around Hollywood filming episodes of shows like The Killing, Entourage, and Arrested Development 'til finally the studio green lighted the film. Having a woman direct a $150 million dollar major motion picture is a huge deal because Hollywood, even though progress is taking place everyday, is still mainly run by men. This film is the most expensive film put in the hands of a women director, the second most expensive being Kathryn Bigelow’s K-19:The Widowmaker which was $100 million. There is still a lot of hesitation when it comes to women in Hollywood; women make up a very small number of the writers and directors. Out of the 250 highest-grossing movies of 2016 only 7% had a female director. Even though it is happening slowly, women are starting to crack their way through Hollywood's glass ceiling. Sofia Coppola just became the second woman in the Cannes Film Festivals 70 year history to win the title of best director for her remake of The Beguiled, the first winner being Jane Campion for The Piano. This year the main-selection jury, which picks the festival's movie of the year, was made up of five directors three men and two women. There was only one other female film-maker recognized this year- it was Lynne Ramsay who won best screenplay for her film You Were Never Really Here.
Currently, the new X Files reboot is being heavily criticized by its fans and even their own star Gillian Anderson, who plays FBI Special Agent Dana Scully, has joined in. She notes that there is not a single woman writer on its staff. She points out that, out of all 207 episodes of the show, only six have been written by or with a woman and two directed by women. The lack of female involvement bleeds over to the two X-Files feature films which also included no women in the writers' room or directors chair.
Gal Gadot, who plays Wonder Woman, showed her understanding of the importance of the film and the impact on its viewers by saying how excited she is to “show girls and boys all the many possibilites of what women can be and what women can do.” She was the perfect choice to play the famous heroine, because she has the perfect mix of beauty and strength that Wonder Woman is so well known for. Gadot herself, who identifies as a feminist, competed in the Miss Universe pageant and also served for two years in the Israeli military. She spoke about her director and the movie as a whole saying "That's the challenge — how to tell a story of a woman and make it universal." She goes on to say "We are all used to having male protagonists in movies [directed by men]. But the way Patty has captured the Wonder Woman character, she is very relatable to everyone. Boy, girl, man, woman — everyone can relate to her."
As a female director myself (I co-directed two plays in high school and directed one alone) and also a superhero fan, I feel the need to reflect on this movie and its impact. Could this lead to more female directed films? Has this movie helped to crush stereotypes about female comic book fans and female directors? Can we hold Hollywood accountable for not hiring enough women? Can we expect more diverse women and more heroines to be portrayed on the big screen now that movies such as Wonder Woman and The Hunger Games are proving to be so successful? I feel that all these questions will be answered with time, and Wonder Woman is surely paving the way for women in the future. Diverse female representation in the media is important, and one way to get there is by hiring more female writers and directors and supporting them and their stories.
