Everything is wonderful now

They did it. They finally did it.
With "Wonder Woman," Warner Bros. has finally made an unquestionably good super-hero movie for the first time since Christopher Nolan was helming the Batman franchise.
For the past six years Warner Bros.' attempts at crafting a DC Cinematic Universe to rival that of Marvel Studios has been met with failure after failure. "Green Lantern" was a false start, forcing the studio to put their hopes into Zack Snyder's "Man of Steel," lest they fall further behind.
"Man of Steel," was controversial at best and its sequel, "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" was a very pretty and very expensive train wreck of a film that left little hope for a successful future.
Last year's "Suicide Squad" had the potential to correct the course, but that potential was left on the cutting room floor along with what I assume were all the parts of the movie that might have made the plot work.
With that kind of history, expectations for "Wonder Woman" were not high. Particularly since it seemed like Warner Bros. had all but forgotten to market the movie until the last few weeks before its release.
Thankfully, "Wonder Woman" has not just exceeded expectations, it has reset the bar for super-hero movies and thrust the Amazon princess back into the public conscious in a way that hasn't been done since 1975.
Unlike Zack Snyder, who has shown a fundamental lack of understanding about what makes Superman and Batman compelling characters, director Patty Jenkins has crafted a movie that not only gets Wonder Woman, but does so in a way that will inform adaptations of the character for years to come.
Writers across all mediums have struggled with balancing the idea of Diana being a warrior princess and ambassador of peace, often swaying too far one way or the other. This movie finds that balance in a way that distinguishes her from her tights wearing compatriots, but also in a way that distinguishes her from other incarnations across comics, television, and video games.
Creatively and critically, "Wonder Woman" is a hit.
More importantly for Warner Bros. though, "Wonder Woman" has been a better than expected financial success. While its $103 million opening weekend may not match the first weekend numbers that its predecessors generated, it is likely that the movie won't suffer as severe a second week drop-off as those movies did.
"Suicide Squad," for instance, generated $133 million in its opening weekend, but that number fell by 67 percent by the second week as bad word of mouth spread. "Man of Steel" and "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" fell to similar fates. In contrast, other recent superhero movies like "Deadpool," "Doctor Strange," and "Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2" have shown more staying power, dropping less than 60 percent from their first to second week.
In "Wonder Woman's" case, positive word of mouth should produce a stronger than average second week. Particularly since a substantial portion of the potential audience may have decided against seeing "Wonder Woman" on the opening week thanks to the stigma of Warner Bros. past offerings.
Even if "Wonder Woman" brings in roughly the same amount of money as its three predecessors, it will have still done so on a smaller budget than any of them, giving Jenkins plenty of bragging rights among her peers.
This is good news for Warner Bros., but bad news for Universal Pictures. As "Wonder Woman" dominates the cultural conversation, Universal's "The Mummy" is in danger of getting overlooked.
Like Warner Bros., Universal has had a hard time establishing their own cinematic universe. 2014's "Dracula Untold," was supposed to be the starting point for a new series of monster movies but the movie ended up being a flop and the studio had to go back to the drawing board. This week Universal tries again, determined to kick off their "Dark Universe" on the back of Tom Cruise. At this point it's doubtful anything will stop Universal from going through with their cinematic universe plans. Pre-production has already started for "Bride of Frankenstein" in 2019, and movies about the Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Invisible Man, Van Helsing, and the Wolf Man are in development.
The Dark Universe train is already rolling, but you can bet that Universal Pictures was hoping they'd have less competition for their grand beginning.
In the meantime, "Wonder Women's" success is a good sign that the DC Cinematic Universe may be starting to turn things around. While Warner Bros. has been almost comically inept at capitalizing on their most recognizable properties thus far, "Wonder Woman" proves that they haven't completely forgotten how to make a crowd pleaser.
We'll have to wait until November and the release of "Justice League" to see if this is the start of a trend or just a fluke.
Travis Fischer is a news writer for Mid-America Publishing and is happy to finally have a DC movie where the biggest complaint is that it ended and I wanted more.