Aquaman 2 Officially Sets A Box Office Record

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, the last story in the original DC Extended Universe, ends the series by breaking box office records for its sequels. Despite having a lot of hit movies in its early years, the DCEU, regrettably, was fragmented and losing ground to critics and fans in its later years. The DCEU was never able to match the box money and viewership of Wonder Woman and Aquaman’s initial solo films, which starred Gal Gadot and Jason Momoa, respectively.

James Gunn and Peter Safran were named the new leaders of DC Studios (previously DC Films) after multiple attempts to revamp the DCEU failed. Instead of making more changes to the DCEU, the two chose to partially reboot it as the forthcoming DC Universe. However, DC Studios would release a final batch of films before they could launch their new series, most of which failed at the box office, probably partly because of a lack of interest in continuity with an impending soft reboot. Aquaman 2 at least broke one record among the DCEU’s other sequels, despite the disappointing conclusion to the DCEU narrative.

Although Aquaman 2 regrettably continues this trend, the DCEU has a history of poor box office numbers for its sequels. Nevertheless, it was the franchise’s most financially successful sequel. At $114,460,076 in total revenue, Aquaman 2 not only brought the DCEU to a close but also exceeded the sales of all previous sequels in the series. Less than half of Aquaman 2’s lifetime earnings came from The Suicide Squad, the second-highest grossing DCEU sequel with only $55,817,425 in total revenue.

The four sequel movies in the DCEU all fared much worse than the first three. Despite having a higher lifetime revenue than Man of Steel, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice is not so much a true sequel to Man of Steel as it is a crossover picture along the lines of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic’s disastrous effects on movie theaters negatively impacted Wonder Woman 1984 and The Suicide Squad, two of the DCEU’s sequels. Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Aquaman 2’s lackluster performances were probably due to a number of things, including the upcoming DCU soft reboot.

Despite the fact that Aquaman 2 followed the DCEU’s unfortunate run of box office failures in the latter years of the franchise, it did manage to have the highest lifetime gross of any sequel. This could be because one of the more well-liked aspects of the DCEU is Jason Momoa’s portrayal of Aquaman, and there’s even a chance that he’ll return to the role of the King of Atlantis in the DCU (though Momoa is also reported to be moving to the role of Lobo). Even though Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom finished the DCEU saga with one of its greatest characters and a meager box office success, its lifetime gross was nonetheless dismal.

Source: screenrant.com