Aquaman 2 Swims Past The Flash At The Box Office, But Is That Enough?
It was a somewhat quiet weekend at the box office as Blumhouse's "Night Swim" had a decent opening while "Wonka" once again won the day. Meanwhile, "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" is still hanging around and fighting the good fight for DC, with the superhero sequel hanging onto the number three spot in its third weekend with a $10.5 million haul. While it may not be enough to make Warner Bros.'s latest comic book adaptation an actual hit, it was enough to bring the movie's total past "The Flash" to make it the highest-grossing DC movie released in 2023.
Director James Wan's "Aquaman" sequel has now earned $100 million domestically and $234.8 million internationally for a grand total of $334.8 million worldwide, per The Numbers. Meanwhile, "The Flash" topped out at $270 million worldwide last year, which included $108 million domestically. Amazingly, that was the best performance that a DC movie managed to put up, as both "Blue Beetle" ($129 million worldwide/$100 million budget) and "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" ($133 million worldwide/$125 million budget) made far less. In short, it was a bad year for DC.
"The Lost Kingdom" is holding better than some analysts (myself included) expected following its less-than-stellar opening weekend. It's doing decent business overseas but not nearly as well as the original, which netted $1.15 billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing DC movie of all time. That included a massive $298 million in China. The sequel, as it stands, has made $54 million in China. That's not bad, but it's also a far cry from what the original did in 2018/2019. Right now, we're looking at a best-case scenario where this movie tops out shy of $500 million worldwide against a $205 million budget. Worst case, it barely clears $400 million.
DC is still sailing in choppy waters
If the film can somehow get at or near $500 million, it would be enough to possibly bail Warner Bros. out (though it would still rank as a tremendous disappointment, given how well its predecessor performed). It's likely to become the highest-grossing DC movie since "The Batman" ($770 million worldwide) and the biggest DC Extended Universe movie since "Black Adam" ($393 million worldwide). If anything, all that does is illustrate why the studio is moving on from the DCEU; that iteration of the franchise has been on a downhill slide for some time now.
The hope is that James Gunn and Peter Safran can revitalize the brand with the upcoming DC Universe reboot, which kicks off next year with "Superman: Legacy." In the meantime, Warner Bros. has "Joker: Folie a Deux" arriving in October, which is another sequel to a $1 billion hit with a lot riding on it. Perhaps that will give audiences a chance to reset. Marvel, meanwhile, only has one movie on deck for 2024 in the form of "Deadpool 3." It will be by far the lightest year for superhero movies in quite some time. Will that make audiences hungrier for them come 2025? That's the big question.
Either way, DC is facing a great deal of uncertainty right now (as is Marvel Studios). 2023 was a very, very bad year for superheroes, with "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" ranking as the only outright live-action success. "The Marvels" also bombed terribly, so it's not just DC. So yes, Jason Momoa's second solo adventure as Aquaman is going to do perhaps just enough business to save face, but that's not what any studio wants from a blockbuster sequel like this. The future remains on wildly uncertain ground.
"Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" is in theaters now.