Director Patty Jenkins has already smashed records with Wonder Woman, with the film making (to date) over $821 million world wide. In the first two weeks of release, the story of the lasso wielding superhero pulled in $232.2 million overseas. The film surpassed the international lifetime gross of Captain America: The First Avenger, and in the Asia region (China excluded) it’s far outperformed the openings of Suicide Squad, Man of Steel, Thor, Iron Man, and Wolverine. It's also the highest grossing film from a female director ever.
And now, Jenkins is smashing another record with her paycheck for the sequel. Variety is reporting that she'll be directing the sequel for $7 to 9 million dollars, a record for a female filmmaker. Jenkins revealed she fought for that salary, and she did it for a very important reason.
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“You’re of course aware of the money,” Jenkins told the publication in a cover story. “But I’ve never been more aware of a duty than I was in this deal. I was extremely aware that I had to make sure I was being paid what the male equivalent would be.”
“Women who have not been in a system that allows them to build up the same level of pay as men are not able to be paid the same as men forever if that’s the way it continues,” Jenkins says. “You have to ask for it to happen, and you have to ask when you’re the appropriate person.”
Jenkins, who was previously best known for the Academy Award winning film Monster, also told Variety she's hopeful that the future of filmmaking is so feminist you don't even notice it.
“I have always wanted to be last-wave feminism, where you’re so feminist, you’re not thinking about it at all," she said. "Where you’re like, ‘Of course this superhero is the greatest superhero of all time. Oh, she’s a woman? I wasn’t even thinking about that!’”
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