The movie has had its detractors too, but from its euphoric critical reception last June to its stunning box office performance—having the most impressive holdovers of any $100 million-plus budgeted blockbuster ever—Wonder Woman has clearly captured the imaginations of most American moviegoers, young and old. It is probably for that reason it surprised again Friday afternoon when the Producers Guild of America included Wonder Woman in its 11-film lineup for the Daryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures. Or in layman’s terms: the PGA nominated Wonder Woman for their version of Best Picture. This vote of confidence is large enough to give the movie the momentum it needs to potentially reenter the awards race and achieve its own big win by getting nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. Which is why Wonder Woman’s nomination is all the more important. Gal Gadot may have been ignored by the SAGs, and we don’t know yet how Patty Jenkins will fare with the Directors Guild, but the nomination of Wonder Woman shows that Hollywood producers are able to recognize its virtues more easily than critics or other guilds. For while Logan receiving some love from the Writers Guild Association is promising, nothing better suggests industry opinion is high than a boost of confidence from those who care most about what drives this town: box office. Again, Wonder Woman played a major and nigh unheard of role on the industry’s bottom line in 2017. With a multiplier of 3.94x—which means it nearly quadrupled its opening weekend tally at the U.S. box office—Wonder Woman struck a chord with audiences who were likely more than just entertained by the sight of Gadot’s Diana ignoring a man telling her no and striding triumphantly across a World War I battlefield; they were inspired by it. That kind of feel-good story, and the feel-good numbers that accompany it, appeals to producers perhaps more than other voting branches of the Academy. For while the Oscars have failed to ever nominate a superhero film for Best Picture, the PGA has previously nominated two superhero yarns for its top prize: The Dark Knight and Deadpool. Yet the snubbing of The Dark Knight has had major consequences, beginning the following year when the Academy moved to allow up to 10 nominees for Best Picture, as opposed to merely five. Obviously, the intent was to get some more mainstream films nominated, albeit the results have not been so egalitarian as that. Indeed, no superhero movie has received that kind of love. Then again, there have been few superhero movies of the quality of The Dark Knight, if any. In a genre that typically emphasizes narrative convention and simplicity over depth and innovation, and which rarely asks for 100 percent from its actors, it is easy (if not agreeable) to see why some would turn a blind eye. But times have changed since the awards season of 2008 and ’09. Superhero movies are now ubiquitous and as defining a genre in the 21st century as Westerns and musicals were in the 20th. They’re also becoming generally more nuanced and ambitious. Because while the PGA nominated Deadpool, its snubbing at the big dance on Oscar night was hardly surprising. It might be another box office Cinderella story; but this Cinderella still had the mouth of Jonah Hill in Superbad. Wonder Woman’s role in 2017 is much more celebratory. For while the film has the classic three-act structure of most superhero movies, it also moves with an intelligence and warm grandeur generally absent from the Marvel Studios stable and the rest of Diana’s DCEU peers that have come to dominate multiplexes. Jenkins instead evokes the sweep of 1940s war melodramas from Hollywood’s Golden Age, as much as she homages Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie. And in the process, she made a film that has had a profound impact. In a year that began with the Women’s March in response to a self-described serial assaulter of women being elected President of the United States, and ended with the #MeToo movement bringing to account powerful men and alleged sexual abusers who have been isolated in their power and money (beginning with Hollywood), 2017 appears to be only the start of a seismic shift and needed purge in what is acceptable. And a major bridge between those events in 2017 was the rapturous reception to Wonder Woman, a mainstream tentpole movie starring a woman and directed by a woman; it likewise celebrated traditionally feminine attributes that are mostly ignored in Hollywood action films. Qualities like compassion, forgiveness, and tolerance. These elements are what made Jenkins’ vision unique in the traditional superhero landscape, and it is what helped elevate the movie from being a hit to becoming something more meaningful to people. It also may be what makes Wonder Woman the first superhero film to finally break the Oscar barrier and receive a Best Picture nomination.
