Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, the last movie in Warner Bros.’s now-defunct DC Extended Universe, is doing better at the box office than anticipated thanks to a surprise good showing in international countries, particularly China. The superhero sequel made a double-win this past weekend after making a lacklustre launch in December. However, all is not lost because Aquaman 2 has already crossed the $300 million global and $100 million domestic thresholds.
The movie brought in over $10 million this weekend from domestic theatres (though this figure may drop once tomorrow’s actuals are released) and almost $50 million from international markets over the previous seven days. With $234 million in overseas sales, Aquaman 2 has now made $334 million in total worldwide.
The film has done particularly well in the IMAX format, earning over $30 million in total revenue, with $10 million coming from the Middle Kingdom. Recent superhero flops like The Marvels and The Flash, which ended their global runs with $205 million and $270 million, respectively, have already been surpassed by Aquaman 2. The film’s current goal is to surpass Black Adam (2022), which ended its theatrical run with slightly over $390 million in worldwide sales.
The movie is expected to make more than $400 million at the box office, largely due to its positive reception abroad. James Wan directed Aquaman 2, which had a difficult time making since the story was impacted by changes that happened behind the scenes in the DCEU.
For example, it is rumoured that Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton each taped cameos as their own interpretations of Batman, but none of them make an appearance in the finished picture. The highly criticised DCEU came to an end with Aquaman 2, having started with Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel in 2013.
Jason Momoa plays the title character in Aquaman 2, which was produced on a rumoured budget of over $200 million—possibly for the last time. Momoa played the character for the first time in the 2017 film Justice League and returned to the role in the first Aquaman film, which was released in 2018 to great critical acclaim.
At most, Aquaman 2 will end up with a small portion of that total. While not very negative, the movie’s reviews weren’t exactly positive either. On the aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, Aquaman 2 has a 35% “rotten” rating; however, the 81% audience score is significantly more favourable.
The superhero genre has been having trouble lately, with both Marvel and DC releasing high-profile failures, but the writing was clearly on the wall. Not only did The Marvels and The Flash perform poorly at the ticket office, but so did Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Blue Beetle, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. In 2025, the DCEU will relaunch as the DC Universe, led by Superman: Legacy, a film directed by James Gunn.