Gendered expectations for female-driven films: risk and rescue narratives around Warner Bros.’ Wonder Woman

Abstract

ABSTRACT After Wonder Woman’s 2017 release, celebratory rhetoric about breaking the superhero glass ceiling abounded. The film’s reception parallels broader industry myths about female-drive films rooted in Hollywood blockbuster production cultures. Specific industry lore blaming an individual filmmaker’s lack of experience or disinterest in superhero projects masks more complex issues of access, bankability, and failure. Through a feminist media studies and media industries studies approach based on industry interviews, trade publication coverage, and box office data, Wonder Woman serves as a case study to explore how larger gendered expectations and industry lore about economic viability and risk inform the traditionally masculine landscape of media franchising cultures. Framed within contemporary gender equity conversations, the critical and cultural debates surrounding the film’s production and theatrical release reveal the literal superhero expectations placed on female-driven films for disrupting, overcoming, and dismantling systemic marginalization faced not only by female filmmakers but women working across the male-dominated entertainment industries.