Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has been playing in the theaters for a while and it seems that DC fans haven’t shown up to support the movie in the same way they supported its predecessor. As a result, it opened with $38 million for the 4-Day Christmas weekend and dropped to $23 million for its 4-Day New Year’s weekend at the domestic box office.
At the moment of writing, the film stands at a total of $258 million worldwide and could have legs that would stretch the global total close to $400 million or above. But since it had a budget of $205 million before all its reshoots and a bit more was spent on marketing, the total expenditure on the film could be close to $300 million. So, deducting the cut of theater chains from its box office total, Aquaman 2 will likely be losing money. Here’s why that’s the case.
Why Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has bombed at the box office
Lost interest in the DCEU
Ever since James Gunn announced the slate for his DCU, there has been a collective loss of interest in DCEU films. As a result, Warner Bros. saw all DC movies bomb in 2023. While Aquaman 2 will end up with better numbers than all other 2023 DC films, fans still didn’t show up perhaps because they knew that the DCEU would soon be rebooted.
Superhero/Sequel fatigue
Besides DC movies, 2023 also saw sequels such as Fast X and Mission: Impossible 7 underperforming alongside other superhero movies including Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels. Since Aquaman 2 also falls under the same category, people seem to have chosen to watch other films instead.
In-house competition
Warner Bros. Discovery offered movies of different genres throughout the Holiday period for people to pick one according to their preference. As a result, Aquaman 2 competed with WBD films such as Wonka and The Color Purple. It also went up against movies from other studios including Migration, Anyone But You, The Iron Claw, The Boys in the Boat, and Ferrari, which furthered its box office struggles.
Lackluster promotion
Even though the actors’ strike had been lifted, Warner Bros. reportedly didn’t spend a lot on marketing Aquaman 2. The film didn’t even get a World Premiere event. As a result, it didn’t spread the kind of awareness it should have, leading to a massive underperformance compared to the previous film’s billion-dollar success.
The MAX factor
All DC movies throughout 2022 and 2023 made their way from the theaters to MAX within three months. Considering that Aquaman 2 might also follow a similar pattern, many fans are willing to wait for it to arrive on MAX to watch it at no extra cost.
Lack of support from critics
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom earned a 35% Rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes and a “B” from CinemaScore. Seeing no support from the critics pushed even more fans away from the final DCEU outing.
