Wonder Woman soars; The Mummy falls behind.
The numbers are in. The newest film from Universal Pictures opened at number 2 domestically, just behind the second week of Wonder Woman, reports say, with the Tom Cruise-led action-adventure horror flick nipping at the heels of the first major female superhero film in years.
The Mummy Wins Big Internationally But Falls Short Domestically
A reboot of The Mummy franchise, the film had every reason to perch atop box office charts: promise of action and horror, potential interest from fans of the iconic The Mummy franchise, and a Tom Cruise top-billing. But alas, The Mummy still failed to capture domestic success.
But while the film failed to garner box office records as high as Wonder Woman, its $174 worldwide record still impresses. But looking more closely shows The Mummy only reaped $32.2 million domestically, with the rest of its cash coming from foreign audiences. Simply put, American audiences aren't flocking to screenings of The Mummy. By contrast, Wonder Woman earned a whopping $57 million.
So what happened? What factors contributed to The Mummy's lack of U.S. viewership? Well, Variety has listed several reasons.
Why 'Wonder Woman' Appears To Be Winning
Many factors drove Wonder Woman's ticket sales, including, but not limited to, overwhelming hype, widespread critical acclaim, and a commercial momentum. Between the film's first and second weekends, Wonder Woman only saw a 45 percent drop in ticket sales — a difficult achievement matched only by a dearth of superhero films such as Batman Begins in 2005, Spider-Man in 2002, and more.
Not to mention that Wonder Woman has successfully snagged the "most tweeted film of 2017" accolade, which means the film has entered cultural dialogue immensely. Universal Pictures, by contrast, simply couldn't compel a large number of moviegoers to go see The Mummy, nor could it make The Mummy a big part of this year's cultural dialogue.
What's more, underwhelming critical reception might also harmed the film's chances. At Rotten Tomatoes, The Mummy holds a 17 percent rating at the time of writing. Keep in mind that no scientific research indicates Rotten Tomatoes scores affect the commercial performance of a film. For one, the critically panned Suicide Squad still managed to rake in mountains of cash. But still, anyone unfamiliar with The Mummy franchise may turn to the site and decide right then and there if they're going to see the film. Once they see its laughably low rating, where else will they turn to convince themselves to see it?
All told, The Mummy still performed incredibly well given the circumstances. Make no mistake: The Mummy still rakes in cash, just not as much as Wonder Woman.
Undoubtedly, Wonder Woman has accrued an insanely huge amount of support and hype from superhero and DC Comics fans alike. In our review of the film, we called Wonder Woman as a film that "creates its own unique stamp on a historical superhero movie, largely due to the unique perspective and innocence offered by Princess Diana of Themyscira and the brilliant take on the role by Gal Gadot."
What a shame for Universal Pictures to put its film side-by-side this year's biggest film.
