'Wonder Woman' $100 million box office is the best opening for a female director

Patty Jenkins is a star.

Wonder Woman banked an estimated $100.5 million in domestic ticket sales, making it the largest-ever opening for a film directed by a woman -- that's Jenkins. It's also the most critically acclaimed DC Extended Universe to date by a wide margin, with a "fresh" rating that almost exceeds the combined "rotten" ratings of its three predecessors.

Sunday totals are still just an estimate of course, but there is virtually zero chance of Jenkins falling short of the record. The previous #1 was Sam Taylor-Johnson, the director of Fifty Shades of Grey, which opened with $85.2 million at the U.S. box office in 2015.

Assuming the estimate holds, Wonder Woman also asserts itself as the 16th superhero movie to date with an opening box office of more than $100 million. It falls in just behind X-Men: The Last Stand, which opened with $102.8 million.

Wonder Woman also claims the 6th-highest opening of all time for a June release. The estimate puts it just ahead of Transformers: Age of Extinction ($100 million) and behind Jurassic World ($208.8 million), Finding Dory ($135.1 million), Man of Steel ($116.6 million), Toy Story 3 ($110.3 million), and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ($109 million).

Wonder Woman also handily surpassed every origin story from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, save for The Avengers. Here's a breakdown: Iron Man ($98.6 million), Guardians of the Galaxy ($94.3 million), Doctor Strange ($85.1 million), Thor ($65.7 million), Captain America: The First Avenger ($65.1 million), The Amazing Spider-Man ($62 million), Ant-Man ($57.2 million), and The Incredible Hulk ($55.4 million).

In the realm of X-Men movies, Wonder Woman only falls behind The Last Stand and Deadpool ($132.4 million), though it still has a fair shot of earning more than the former.

All that said, Warner Bros. has already seen a lot of success with DC Extended Universe properties, even in the face of critical outcry. Man of Steel ($116.6 million), Suicide Squad ($133.7 million), and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($166 million) all saw bigger openings, despite their far lousier reviews.

Wonder Woman is also off to a healthy start overseas. A near-simultaneous worldwide release this weekend brought in an estimated $122.5 million. It's already out in major foreign markets like China and the U.K., though a number of key openings -- including France, Germany, Spain, and Japan -- are still to come.

While WB's Wonder Woman success is likely to overshadow all other box office stories this weekend, newcomer Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie merits a shout-out as well. Its weekend estimate of $23.5 million is a great showing against the reported $38 million budget; Fox, the distributor, was smart to open this family-friendly animated feature against the superhero blockbuster.

Pirates of the Caribbean, now in its second weekend, is the #3 finisher at the box office with an estimated $21.6 million. That's a huge 66 percent drop from last week's (admittedly low) $63 million opening.

If it weren't for the strong performance overseas -- currently $386.6 million -- this latest Pirates adventure would amount to a massive flop. Even accounting for foreign audiences, Dead Men might struggle to top the global box office for The Curse of the Black Pearl ($654.3 million), the series' first movie and the only one to neither approach nor exceed $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales.

All box office data provided by comScore and Box Office Mojo.