'Wonder Woman 1984' Box Office Drops 67% In Its Second Weekend

Wonder Woman 1984 might have been flying high in its opening weekend, with the biggest post-pandemic opening yet, but it experienced a steep drop at domestic theaters in its second weekend. But whether that's down to the unusual day-and-date release on HBO Max or poor word-of-mouth buzz is still uncertain.

Deadline reports that the Wonder Woman 1984 box office experienced a massive 67% drop during its second weekend in domestic theaters, more than the average second-weekend drop of roughly 50%. The DC movie sequel has grossed $28.5 million in 10 days domestically, with a worldwide total of $118.5 million.

Wonder Woman 1984 remained in the top spot for this past weekend, taking in $5,500,000 in 2,151 theaters — the majority of the $13 million total that all current theatrical films grossed in the weekend. This is in the middle of the holiday season, usually one of the biggest periods for the winter box office. But with only 40% of domestic theaters currently operating, these numbers are a grim reminder of the current theatrical landscape.

So it's down to speculation — what would these numbers look like in a normal weekend? Last year, post-Christmas weekend grosses were down about 20%, but this year the total drop was about 50%. As for a specific comparison for Wonder Woman 1984, other films that opened on Christmas Day and dropped in their second weekend were Sherlock Holmes in 2010, dropping 41%, and It's Complicated, dropping 15%. In both cases, Wonder Woman 1984's drop is more than double their average.

But it's hard to verify whether the reasons for the drop are due to poor word-of-mouth — Wonder Woman 1984 earned a B+ Cinemascore, compared to the A of the original 2017 film, and has a rapidly dropping Rotten Tomatoes score — or due to the unprecedented day-and-date release for the film. Wonder Woman 1984 released in both theaters and HBO Max on the same day, with many viewers likely foregoing theaters due to the one-month availability on the WarnerMedia streaming platform (and the fact that a deadly pandemic is still spreading across the world). Perhaps audiences who would have seen the film in its second weekend instead chose the HBO Max option.

But one positive for Wonder Woman 1984 comes from Australia, where the film has crossed $11.5 million in 10 days. Per IndieWire, that would be the equivalent of about $90 million so far in the U.S., in normal times.