The awaited sequel to Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman 1984 was released in December 2020. Though the film didn't receive positive reviews from film critics and by fans unlike the first film, that didn't stop Warner Bros. from developing the third film for Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman.
Over a year after the film's premiere, Wonder Woman 1984's producer Charles Roven expressed his disappointments on the film's unconventional release strategy. After being delayed for a year due to the Covid situation, the film was finally released on the big screens in late December of 2020. However, fans were shocked when Warner Bros. announced that the film would debut in the streaming service, HBO Max.
In an interview with The LA Times, Roven reflected on the poor release strategy for the WW84 film. Roven explained:
"Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot and myself were asked if we would support a day-and-date release on “Wonder Woman 1984" when we were in the height of COVID, and we had already held the movie for over a year. We were really facing the option of either coming out simultaneous on HBO Max in December of 2020 or waiting until December of 2021."
"We agreed to do it. But we were not told that that would be what all of 2021 was going to be like. And I have to say that I think they themselves [Warner Bros.] know that that didn’t work. There’s some pretty great movies, and I think I produced one of the best ones, which was James Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad.” And its box office was minuscule compared to what it did on HBO Max. I think it was a missed opportunity."
"That option seems to have gone away, and not just because the filmmakers didn’t like it, but because I think that the studios themselves realize that they were putting a cap on their revenues. No way would “Spider-Man” have been the hit that it is if it had been shared with streaming."
Though giving the audience a more accessible platform to stream much-awaited films like the Wonder Woman sequel is very considerate, the film suffered in the box-office. The sequel grossed $166.3 million worldwide and was considered a flop, especially when you compare it to the first film which grossed $818 million worldwide. Though the streaming strategy was a failure, at least the audience was able to watch Wonder Woman 1984 in their homes. What happened to the sequel will surely be a lesson to future producers, who want to give their film a successful box-office earning.
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