Wonder Woman 1984 Is the Best Selling Movie of 2021 on Home Video
Wonder Woman 1984 was the best-selling film on both DVD and Blu-Ray in 2021. The second installment in the Wonder Woman film franchise was highly anticipated as the film had been delayed multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Warner Bros. finally decided to release the film on Christmas Day 2020 in both theaters and on HBO Max as part of their plan to release their entire 2021 film lineup on the streaming service.
While the initial critical response to Wonder Woman 1984 was positive, the more critics saw the movie the average review score dropped and audiences were not as kind to the film. Many took issue with the film's tone and subplot around Steve Trevor taking control of someone's body. However, at the time, have Wonder Woman 1984 had the biggest opening weekend during the pandemic and in total brought in $46 million domestically and $166 million worldwide. Still, the film did carry a $200 million dollar budget which does not take into account marketing cost, meaning Wonder Woman 1984 was going to have to perform very well on home video to help bolster itself up.
Despite some negative reactions, plenty of people still wanted to own Wonder Woman 1984 as The Numbers reports it as the top-selling movie on home video in 2021. The film sold 1,427,182 units (608,686 in DVDs and 818,496 on Blu-Ray) for a total of $34,450,146 in total consumer spending. It topped both the individual DVD and Blu-Ray charts and beat out other hits including The Croods: The New Age which appeared at number 2 on both charts and Godzilla vs Kong.
Wonder Woman 1984 was reportedly watched by half of HBO Max's subscribers on Christmas Day and also drove the service to 41 million subscribers. The strong sales in the home video market might indicate that general audience reaction may have been more positive than online discussion would indicate. Those factors, combined with its decent box office draw during the pandemic and the home video sales help make Wonder Woman 1984 a success, if not the runaway hit the first film was back in 2017.
Warner Bros. is currently working on a third Wonder Woman, with director Patty Jenkins and star Gal Gadot set to return. Gadot recently mentioned that Wonder Woman 3 could begin filming next year, hinting that the third film in the franchise may not arrive until sometime in 2024 making it a four-year wait between movies. The extra time will also allow the filmmakers more time to work on the script, possibly working on issues audiences had with Wonder Woman 1984, while also incorporating it more into the present day DCEU after the events of The Flash, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and Shazam: Fury of the Gods.
Source: The Numbers