Although Spider-Man: Homecoming and Wonder Woman come from two rivals in the entertainment industry, it’s hard not to compare them.
It’s probably pretty silly to keep comparing Spider-Man: Homecoming and Wonder Woman. Yours truly has done it before, even! They’re not the same movie; they’re not even from the same studios. But they are from the two titans of American comics, and they both signal something new about their respective universes.
For Spider-Man: Homecoming, that “something new” is not Tom Holland, since we’ve seen him in the suit already. It’s instead Marvel working with a company that owns the film rights to one of its biggest characters so closely that Homecoming‘s sequel will reportedly have a different Marvel Cinematic Universe character show up instead of Iron Man.
In Wonder Woman‘s case, the key idea is positivity. We’ve talked about it in our review of the film, which dubs the movie “lovely,” among other things.
Now, it’s not clear if either movie will signal a long-term change. In Wonder Woman‘s case, even before the film came out, producers were pumping the brakes on retooling the DCEU entirely. And as for Homecoming, well, it has to sting that Sony’s already planning at least a Venom movie.
But the movies seem to be on similar paths in terms of reactions, as well. Wonder Woman, from the word go on Twitter, had lots of buzz. And Spider-Man: Homecoming, as Entertainment Weekly writes, is getting suspiciously similar reactions. In fact, Box Office Pro currently projects a $301 million domestic take for the picture, while Wonder Woman crossed that milestone today.
So these films share great reactions. Who’s to say that these films can’t have an impact on their respective universes after the fact? Even if that doesn’t happen, it’s hard to see fans being particularly tolerant of Marvel and DC not learning their lessons from the probable success of Homecoming and the definite success of Wonder Woman.
Next: Is Justice League filming new action sequences?
Here’s hoping we don’t have to worry too much.