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Which brings us to the present. We now have over a dozen MCU movies, all of which have received positive reviews and profitability. On the DCEU front, we are only three films in, all of which have barely crossed the threshold into profitability territory and none of which received any bit of acclaim. The DCEU may have made a few extra dollars for the studio but they haven’t done themselves any favors. For their fourth feature, it was already time to mix things up again.

What the MCU is famous for, aside from mega blockbusters and boatloads of cash, is their lack of diversity. For all the hits they have released, none have focused on anything other than a white guy. Sure, the Avengers have had women and minorities, but none of the solo character movies have featured anything other than a white dude. Black guys finally have their day in 2018 when the Black Panther movie is set for release, but outside of the occasional appearance of Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow character within these films, we haven’t gotten a female spinoff yet and the earliest we can expect one is in 2019 when the MCU attempts bringing Captain Marvel to the big screen. For all the DCEU has done wrong, the one thing they have done right is include their sister superhero into the lineup.

So yeah, the male dominated superhero subgenre has been uber-successful and uber-sexist all at the same time. It’s a shining moment in Hollywood that ladies finally have their moment to shine in spandex suits and it’s surprising the DCEU, for all their faults and failings, is the studio smart enough to start the inclusion of non-white-male lead characters. Even more surprising is that after all three prior DCEU disappointed critically (Man of Steel 55%, BvS 28%, and Suicide Squad 25% on Rotten Tomatoes) the early word on Wonder Woman is incredible (currently 97% positive reviews). However, even less surprising is that budgets for the three male-dominated DCEU films have ranged from $175-250 million a piece while Wonder Woman started off with a “measly” $100 million budget. Even in a world of progress where a woman can headline a comic book movie with a woman also directing that movie, we still can’t trust all those women with anything more than $100 million. It’s just “too risky.”

While nothing makes me happier than watching the superior MCU completely dominate over the DCEU’s struggling success, it still makes me happy to see the first of these Cinematic Universe female movies being so well received, even if it was the product of the DCEU. It’s the DCEU’s first time doing something the MCU hasn’t done and, surprisingly, is the first time the DCEU seems to have produced something even remotely watchable. It pleases me greatly to see Wonder Woman have such positivity surrounding its release. For many months leading up to the release I have seen analysts predict around an $85 million opening weekend with a $230 million domestic finish somewhere in sights; however, in the last week as reviews have begun to pour in, I’ve seen projections increase to a $110 million debut with a $300 million total possible.

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