Women don’t like superhero movies. That myth was one of the biggest obstacles Patty Jenkins faced as she directed the much-anticipated “Wonder Woman,” out June 2. In an interview with The Guardian, Jenkins details the opposition she faced as the first woman to direct a DC Comics film and as someone interested in making movie about women and for women.
“There were so many of those conversations about whether so-and-so would like it,” Jenkins revealed. The “so-and-so” in question was (shocker) men. “It’s the trickle-down effect,” she continued. “As long as your main interest is teenage boys, then the No 1 obvious person to write that story is a grown teenage boy and the No 1 person to direct it is a grown teenage boy. Ultimately so many things come down to money, but particularly when it comes to superheroes — people really thought that only men loved action movies and only men would go see a superhero movie.”
What the “Monster” filmmaker is driving at here is that superhero movies are incredibly expensive. Studios don’t want to shell out huge amounts for a film that might not be profitable, especially if the film is marketed to women, who are constantly underestimated and undervalued as a market. There’s an incorrect assumption that women don’t go the movies. According to the latest MPAA report, women purchase 52 percent of all movie tickets. So, it’s definitely not just teenage boys who go to the movies. It’s time to recognize women’s spending power and support big, female-oriented films.
There’s a lot riding on “Wonder Woman.” Despite the MPAA’s numbers, big budget films starring women are still held to an unfair double standard. If one female-centric film fails, the industry responds by acting as though future female-led films are destined to fail, too. If a film exceeds, then it’s often perceived as a fluke.
Jenkins was aware of this while filming. At a certain point she realized she would just have to do her job and shut out the noise. “People will start making demands online — ‘There better be this and this character’ — and it’s impossible for me to think of anything in those terms, no piece of art comes together that way,” she explained. “You just have to retreat to intention.”
Her strategy appears to be paying off. The buzz around “Wonder Woman” is deafening. DC Entertainment named June 3 “Wonder Woman Day,” complete with celebrations at more than 2,000 comic book stories, bookstores, and libraries. Women-only screenings of the film have sold out in Austin, with more screenings planned in Alama Drafthouse theaters around the country. And Women in Film has spearheaded a campaign encouraging audiences to seek out “Wonder Woman” during its opening weekend, June 2–3.
