Recent reports have claimed that Warner Bros. stuck to their guns and kept Wonder Woman 1984 as a Christmas Day release because they were worried about a movie that wrapped shooting over two years ago going stale if it was forced to sit on the shelf any longer. And having already been scheduled for November and then December of 2019 before staking out dates in June, August and October of this year then eventually settling on December, you can understand why the studio wanted to get the blockbuster sequel out there without any more delays.
Of course, it was also announced that Patty Jenkins’ pic would arrive simultaneously on the big screen and HBO Max, a bombshell reveal that’s already been comfortably overshadowed by WB’s landmark decision to release their entire 2021 calendar on streaming and in theaters at the same time, a strategy which could have massive implications for the entire moviegoing experience.
At one stage, it looked as though Wonder Woman 1984 had the potential to comfortably sail past the billion dollar mark at the box office, but with the Coronavirus pandemic having brought business to its knees and audiences now able to watch the film from the comfort of their own homes, it’ll probably end up posting a loss once the numbers have been crunched.
That hasn’t deterred star Gal Gadot, though, who’s taken to social media to encourage folks to check it out on the biggest screen possible as long as they feel safe to do so, as you can see below.
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Let’s not kid ourselves and pretend that anything else is going to happen other than HBO Max subscriptions rising exponentially on Christmas Day as the box office remains in the doldrums. Wonder Woman 1984 might be poised to be a commercial dud, but it’ll no doubt become an overwhelming success in what could be a glimpse of the new normal.