Cheer up, fanboys — Warner Bros isn’t trying to strangle “Wonder Woman” before it even hits theaters. In fact, five weeks out from release WB is spending more to sell the first live action film featuring the iconic female super hero than it did for its last comic book outing, “Suicide Squad,” TheWrap has learned.
On Thursday, a growing chorus of online fans and commentators began openly fretting about what they perceived as a lack of advertising and promotion for “Wonder Woman.” “The lack of marketing worries me,” wrote Shana O’Neil at SyfyWire. “It worries a lot of people who are invested in the success of female superheroes in film and television.”
Hollywood does indeed have a poor track record of fully supporting female-led action films, but that doesn’t appear to be the case here. In fact, Warners is revving up its marketing spend on the film.
A recent Vanity Fair article revealed that WB has already thrown some serious money at promotional efforts for “Wonder Woman” — $3,043,212 for TV advertising across the U.S. so far. By comparison, at the same point in its pre-release period, the company had only spent $2,645,643 on the “Suicide Squad” TV campaign.
But individuals with knowledge of the film tell TheWrap that a major increase in visible “Wonder Woman” marketing is coming starting in May, just after Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” hits U.S. theaters and its marketing campaign wanes somewhat.
In other words, whatever the final film is like, WB isn’t writing off a (reportedly) $120 million investment. Get ready to see the princess of Themyscria all over the place well before seeing her on the big screen.
Gal Gadot made her first appearance as Wonder Woman in “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” which debuted to $166 million in March, 2016.
The standalone “Wonder Woman,” from director Patty Jenkins, also stars Connie Nielsen, Robin Wright, David Thewlis, Elena Anaya, Lucy Davis and Danny Huston. The film is written by Allan Heinberg and Geoff Johns from a story by Heinberg and Zack Snyder.
“Wonder Woman” will be released in theaters on June 2, 2017.