Jason Momoa has been partially hopeful about returning as Aquaman in Warner Bros.’ new DC Universe, but that might not be happening, as his new sequel, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, has only made $28 million over the weekend and an estimated $40 million through the four-day holiday weekend following its release on December 22, per coverage from Variety.
“The sequel cost $205 million and ranks among the worst debuts of the year for a superhero movie,” the website reported, noting that this is even worse than the $47 million that The Marvels premiered at and how Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will probably be the fourth DC movie this year to fail at the box office following disappointments that include Blue Beetle ($25 million).
The numbers come after an event held in LA that saw Momoa not only premiere his new film in front of fans, but also admit that he wasn’t sure if he’d be back as Aquaman.
(WATCH) Jason Momoa and director James Wan intro #Aquaman2 at the LA premiere and cherish what may be the last time Momoa plays the DC character after his 12 year journey as Aquaman pic.twitter.com/hy0pUumjke
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) December 19, 2023
“This might be the last time we’re up on the stage together, it’s been a long journey,” Momoa told James Wan during the event after the director said the actor would always be his Aquaman. “It’s been 12 years playing this character, the longest I ever played a character through so much.”
“The truth of it is — I mean, if the audience loves it, then there’s a possibility,” Momoa told Entertainment Tonight recently when asked about whether he’d be back as Aquaman. “But right now, I’m like, ‘It’s not looking too good.’”
But while Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’s box office performance seems to reflect that, Warner Bros. is seemingly leaving things open, noting that they have a solid relationship with the actor.
“We’ll see what happens with him beyond it. I know that Jason will always have a home at DC, and at Warner Bros. In fact, his next movie is Minecraft,” DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran told The Independent last week.
“If it’s the end of the journey, fine. If it goes on, that’s also fine,” Safran continued.
“What I hope is that people will really be here to support him on this journey.”
“Aquaman 2 is coming in at $38.3M for the 4-day, under its $40M projection, while Wonka is at $28.35M over Friday-Monday, putting its running total at $85.8M,” Deadline wrote for its Tuesday box office update.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has made $120,100,000 worldwide at the time of this writing, according to Box Office Mojo’s numbers.
Discussion (19 replies)
Join Discussion →I haven't seen it yet and don't plan to go to the theaters to watch it. I am sure others have the same thought. Theaters just aren't worth it anymore. They cost way too much money and time. Then, when you do take the time and pay the money some a$$hole in the theater won't STFU during the show.
Watching at home is a LOT better than it once was. With high definition TVs in homes the theater experience just isn't needed anymore.
Granted I know some movies people will go to watch at theaters because it's something they really want to see; but sadly the DC Universe just isn't what it could be.
Theaters should be cheaper, though, supposedly they are 'the same' adjusted for inflation, yet, for some reason going is more of ' a decision' for me than before.
Of couse like many ( I think) im making the most money in my life and I am the brokest I've been in roughly 15 years.
I think it because EVERYTHING gone up relentlessly. Inflation, sure, used to be something would go up other things would calm down a bit, right now not the best example, I know, but I mean like switching chicken to pork or even like ' shopping for car insurance' would yield significant savings, not so anymore, at all in my experience.
Also people now know James Gunn is coming in and re-booting the entire franchise with new stories, so the current stuff just isn't relevant anymore in people's eyes, they know that it isn't going anywhere, and so they've also lost interest. It's a compounded issue. It's like the Marvel thing, people are just kinda getting tired of it all.
Im not sure too many know this? Honestly I didn't know this movie existed, like, at all.
Lets add in that the female lead is the same woman who pout Johnny Depp through the ringer. (I'll be honest he isn't a great guy either.) A movie that to go see it here in DFW on opening weekend was almost 50 bucks just for two tickets. Not including snacks or anything at the theater that are so crazy it's 10 bucks for a large POPCORN.
Yea screw them. Inflation can kiss my ass. I'll keep my 'free' max subscription through my phone carrier and just watch it on my big screen at home.
My Wife WANTED to go see this movie and I told her great order tickets. She went to look then asked.. "how long before it's on streaming?" I said.. 45 days to a couple months probably. So we wait for streaming.
I'm tempted to get one of those theater passes... if it's appreciably cheaper than getting tickets at the theater.
If I ever go to the movies it's on a weekday matinee for like $7 a ticket. Cheaper, less crowded. Take our own snacks and just buy drinks. Otherwise you're spending $60-80 on everything. Nope.
Ever since the 2000s when HDTVs just absolutely blew away theater projectors in terms of image quality and colors. OLED only widened that gap. Plus we got some big-@ss screens today. And then of course it is very easy and relatively cheap to get a good sound system that can easily match a theater's sound system. And there is no substitute for BD quality.
Yupz. Never could stand that sh1t. Talking to other people, talking on their phones, or just talking to no one in particular. Not to mention at home you can pause the movie, go to the bathroom, rewind if necessary, supply your own food and drink, etc. Just cheaper, more comfortable, and more convenient to watch at home.
Back in the days when I did actually go see movies at movie theaters, I would always go on a weekday morning. No weekends, and no evenings or nights. If I had to take off of work or skip class, so be it. And even then, there was still no guarantee that there wouldn't be talkative @ssholes in the theater. Also paying more than about $6 for a ticket was more than I could tolerate. When ticket prices started going past $8 I was like "well f*ck this nonsense then".
Yeah. I mean DCEU was already suffering greatly compared to MCU during the height of MCU, and was seen as a joke. Now that everything is gonna be wiped out and started over fresh, people especially don't care about the existing DCEU sh1t. And then on top of that is how the masses are just plain getting tired of this kind of stuff (comic-based movies) in general. If MCU is suffering from that, DCEU has absolutely no hope whatsoever. But if any man has the ability to turn stuff around, it would be James Gunn. Have you seen the 2nd Suicide Squad movie? That's a miracle I never expected to happen. I don't believe he can save the entire DCEU like that though. Even his MCU work was starting to suffer a bit before he took the DCEU job.
I don't even do that sh1t. Streaming quality is @ss too. If I want to see a movie, I wait for BD rips.
I sort of watched the 1st one on a plane a while back. No desire to see this one. Not that I dislike Momoa per se, just sick of superhero / comic book stuff.
Pretty much the same. I think we went to one or two more films once it got past the $8 mark, and I was done. Even if it was just two of us I could still buy the 4K/BD for a few dollars more and be done with it.
I will give credit to Max. Its 1080p streams are pretty impressive. 4K is another story though but still better than some others. I feel Disney has a moving slider for its bitrates, Amazon is still the worst, Netflix, beyond the pixel count, looks about the same as a Max's 1080p, and while I like Paramount's 4K streams I have to either watch it on the Z9D or via a Shield due to them getting in a pissing contest wit LG years ago. Although their 1080p streams a pretty good too.
So I read an article on some movie site over the weekend while this movie was tanking but even before then, it was pretty obvious it would take a miracle, which never happened, to save it. The short end of it, and very similar to The Marvels, is that it just took far too long to get either movie out. This movie was the better part of 5 years and given that audiences were already becoming far more selective about what comic projects they were still interested in combined with this being a franchise that many folks were curious about at best, it was almost doomed from the start. Both movies needed to be out within 2 years to have had any hope of real ticket sales.
I can only imagine what Marvel is going through in trying to figure out what to do with its bazillion projects that nobody wants to see and honestly while I like most of what Gunn has done with Suicide Squad and GOTG, I really doubt he's going to be able to revive DC. I don't feel that comic movies are totally dead but the days of constant releases bringing in steady ticket sales are done. They each need to, at most, keep it to one or two a year and be far more selective about the story/characters that are left to explore. Honestly, I think it should be every other year but that's just me. From Doom to X-Men, Marvel has some potential but audiences are unlikely to want to see anything else rebooted right now. DC, well, nobody knows how to keep throwing stuff at the wall for rebooting like they do so it's just a matter of time since it's their go-to strategy, I mean, how many Batman's and Superman's are there?
Just a little reference as I do like to check Box Office Mojo frequently for its global ticket sales since both our domestic sales, and media often paint a distorted picture of what is going on in the industry while worldwide sales really do show a bigger picture of it. That being said there were some still very successful comic book franchises in 2023. Marvel still had 3 titles in the top 10. I listed the top 50 but honestly after the top 20 the numbers are pretty bad no matter how you look at it.
oh, @DrezKill, if you haven't seen Peacemaker yet then you've got to check it out. Gunn did an awesome job there and to me, it just shows that he'll be better off working with different characters and material than doing the reboots.
I did in fact see Peacemaker some time ago, but thanks for the heads up anyways!
All that picture and chart tells me is one thing.
Comic book based movies are going to be replaced by Video Game based movies.
Whether or not they'll be successful is anyone's guess, but the market will be flooded with them soon.
Well if they base it on the success and rotten tomato metric for the games we'll see more interesting stories. Mass Effect as a movie could be awesome. Baulders Gate 3 as a movie could be... well that would be hard. But maybe awesome.
Jedi Survivor as a movie.. maybe... that's a tuff one.
Hogwarts Legacy as a movie..
Fuck... just how many games have I enjoyed based on licensed IP this year... uhhh original stuff... Starfield? Uhhh outer Worlds. uhhh... yep. Diablo and World of Warcraft... of course WOW has been done... uhhh.. City of Heroes but that's just another hero movie..
there are a TON of good stories that are original and cool that would be interesting as a movie... just tuff to do.
There are a lot of things that ~could~ be good movies.
Even in the superhero genre, as tired as I am of it, I still acknowledge there are plenty of good stories out there to be told. And an infinite number of ideas that haven't been thought of yet that could be great.
But it takes a good write/director/producer, and a publisher/distributor/investors willing to give them latitude to let those stories get told
Back to the OP ---
I haven't even heard of half of these movies. I am so out of touch.