Patty Jenkins holds the title for the biggest domestic debut for a female director after ‘Wonder Woman’ smashed box office estimates over the weekend.
The hotly anticipated film – which stars Gal Gadot as the titular character – raked in a whopping $100.5m at the US/Canada box office over the last few days, beating previous record holder Sam Taylor-Johnson, who directed ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’, which made $85.1m in its opening weekend.
Catherine Hardwicke’s ‘Twilight’ placed third, making $69.6m, whilst Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck’s animated movie ‘Frozen’ and 2012’s ‘Brave’ – directed by Brenda Chapman and Mark Andrews – made up the top five with $67.4m and $66.3m respectively.
Warner Bros’ distribution chief Jeff Goldstein said: "Globally this property has just resonated with fans. There’s something iconic about … the story of Wonder Woman that’s hitting the zeitgeist perfectly … While the story was critically tough, she [Gadot] emerged as a real bright spot."
It comes after Jenkins revealed the second instalment of ‘Wonder Woman’ will take place in America.
She shared: "The story will take place in the US, which I think is right. She’s Wonder Woman. She’s got to come to America. It’s time …
"I’m not a big obligation person when it comes to art. You want to do a movie like this because you believe in it. Then I had this revelation in the middle of the night: this is your dream cast, you’ve created a character that you love and you can say anything you want in the world right now."
Although Patty says she feels no obligation to return to the franchise as the director for the sequel, she would love to be involved in the "beautiful story".
She added: "Then I realised that ‘Wonder Woman 2’ is its own great movie. I made Wonder Woman. Now I want to make ‘Wonder Woman 2’. It’s a beautiful story to tell, an important time to tell it and with people that I love."
Wonder Woman’s Patty Jenkins box office triumph
