A home-grown German film saved the box office this last weekend. Wunderschön, a dramedy, sailed into the top spot. It even de-throned that red and blue Marvel hero that German-speaking audiences have been obsessed with for months.

In 674 theaters, 210,000 tickets were sold. Wunderschön made an impressive € 2 million. By comparison, Spider-Man: No Way Home lured 120,000 visitors in its eighth week and made €1.2 million. But it is game over for Spidey’s highest flight, regardless of crossing the € four million mark in sales overall.

Sing 2 dropped to number three in Germany but kept the top spot in Austria, where the German front-runner won’t open till next week. Two new releases made it into the top ten: Around the World in 80 Days debuted at number six and the zombie movie The Sadness in number ten. This last film did not get a rating for on-demand due to its violent content.

The longest-running success story in the top 20 is, without a doubt, Die Schule der Magischen Tiere (School of Magical Animals). Here is another movie made in Germany. The live-action adventure, with CGI animated creatures paired with children, centers on Ida. She goes from outsider to most popular student thanks to her talking fox. This charming tale is in its 17th week and has sold more than 1.6 million tickets.

So, what about the big box office leader this past week, Wunderschön – which translates to ‘Magically Beautiful’? Director Karoline Herfurth created what is, essentially, a European take on Sex and the City (in no way related to the new TV spin-off). The film tells the story of five women of different ages dealing with the demands of their lives, their self-image, and the expectations of others.

Among them we see Sonja. She is a young mother of two. Sonja realizes, after two pregnancies, she’s no longer comfortable in her body. Frustrated, she tells her girlfriends: “You have to work more, you have to have sex, you have to accept your body… But I’m not ok with my body!” She is not the only one feeling like this. Her friend, 59-year-old Frauke, has marital problems. She does not feel seen by her husband.

The dialogue generates laughs while still showing an all too familiar and painful truth about aging and relationship. “You don’t even look at me anymore,” says Frauke at dinner, to which her husband responds: “Of course, I look at you. After all, you’re sitting right across from me.” The laughter in the audience may be on the wry side if coming from female theatergoers. Frauke’s best friend, Vicky, simply refuses to let feelings get in the way. She prefers to have quickies and one-nightstands out of fear of getting hurt. Frauke’s daughter, Julie, has body image issues. She wants to be a model but faces rejection for not being skinny enough — when, in fact, she is. Leyla, her classmate, would give anything to look like her. Multi-award-winning actress Martina Gedeck and her co-stars Emilia Schüle, Nora Tschirner, Dilara Aylin Ziem, and Herfurth herself in the part of Sonja, learn to accept themselves. It’s a timely story about female self-worth. It helps that all three screenwriters are women – Herfurth collaborated on the script with Monika Fäßler and Lena Stahl.