Jason Momoa stars as Arthur Curry, aka Aquaman, in Warner Bros.’ “Aquaman and the Misplaced Kingdom.”
Warner Bros. Discovery
“Aquaman and the Misplaced Kingdom” puppy-paddled to a $28.1 million domestic opening, the fourth-most affordable in the history of the DC Prolonged Universe.
The film was expected to open concerning $32 million and $42 million. As it stands, the $28 million estimate from Warner Bros. Discovery is considerably less than half of the $67.8 million the very first “Aquaman” motion picture brought in all through its 2018 debut weekend.
The movie, probably Jason Momoa’s last switch at the titular aquatic hero, is anticipated to protected close to $40 million in ticket product sales more than the four-day Christmas vacation weekend.
The weekend functionality of “Aquaman and the Shed Kingdom” is on par with Warner Bros.’ DC franchise in modern decades. Only a single film from the franchise has debuted with more than $60 million in ticket sales since 2018 — “Black Adam” took in $67 million in early 2022, according to information from Comscore.
DC Extended Universe film openings
- “Wonder Female 1984” (2020) — $16.7 million
- “Blue Beetle” (2023) — $25 million
- “The Suicide Squad” (2021) — $26.2 million
- “Aquaman and the Misplaced Kingdom” (2023) — $28.1 million
- “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” (2023) — $30.1 million
- “Birds of Prey” (2020) — $33 million
- “Shazam!” (2019) — $53.5 million
- “The Flash” (2023) — $55 million
- “Black Adam” (2022) — $67 million
- “Aquaman” (2018) — $67.8 million
- “Justice League” (2017) — $93.8 million
- “Wonder Female” (2017) — $103.2 million
- “Person of Metal” (2013) — $116.6 million
- “Suicide Squad” (2016) — $133.6 million
- “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” (2016) — $166 million
Resource: Comscore
The $28 million believed opening haul is lesser than the $30.1 million “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” tallied previously this yr. Notably, the 2nd “Shazam!” film only managed to obtain $57.6 million domestically and $133 million globally for the duration of its operate in theaters.
“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” added $80.1 million from international ticket revenue Friday as a result of Sunday, bringing its complete anticipated global consider to $120 million (which includes the domestic Xmas expectations for Monday).
The initial “Aquaman” also benefited from global ticket revenue back again in 2018. Far more than 70% of its $1.15 billion box business office arrived from markets exterior the U.S. and Canada, according to Comscore knowledge.
Notably, “Aquaman” is the highest-grossing film in the DC Extended Universe franchise and no DCEU film has produced additional than $400 million at the world-wide box office environment considering the fact that that movie was released.
The franchise has endured from lackluster high-quality, as critics have balked at CGI-significant action sequences and disjointed tries at bringing heroes collectively for crew-ups. Pandemic-period limitations also led to more compact box place of work openings in 2020 and 2021.
Even as those people constraints have lifted and audiences have returned to theaters, the DCEU has struggled to lure back again even its most ardent admirers. This was exacerbated before this 12 months when Warner Bros. Discovery announced that the overall franchise would be rebooted in 2025 by the recently minted heads of DC Studios, James Gunn and Peter Safran.
The planned reboot dismayed fans, who believe that that “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” “Blue Beetle,” “The Flash” and “Aquaman and the Shed Kingdom” — all launched immediately after the announcement — would have no relationship to upcoming DC jobs and ended up not have to-see theatrical encounters.
A person shiny place for the “Aquaman” sequel is that it faces confined level of competition in theaters future 7 days and could benefit from the impending holiday seasons, as faculty vacations have mother and father seeking out-of-residence amusement.
“When so-termed superhero exhaustion could be in participate in for several movies of the style in 2023, resulting in lower-than-expected opening weekend success, movies that open up in late December such as ‘Aquaman 2’ usually play the extended game and draw their audiences through the vacation and into the new year,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.