Aquaman 2 Box Office Debut: A Disappointing Start for the Final DCEU Movie

The Long-Awaited Sequel

Aquaman 2's box office numbers from Thursday previews show the final DCEU movie is already off to a worse start than The Flash and The Marvels.

New Aquaman 2 Poster Amber Heard Mera

Fans have waited for five years for Aquaman 2. The first Aquaman movie starring Jason Momoa was released in December 2018. It did well in its first three-day opening from December 21 to December 23, 2018, making $67.9 million. Initially, Warner Bros. planned to release the sequel on December 16, 2022. However, the Aquaman 2 release date was moved to a year later. Several things happened during the long wait, with one of the cast members, Amber Heard, marred with controversy due to her high-profile defamation case against ex-husband Johnny Depp.

Box Office Numbers and Expectations

On Thursday previews, Aquaman 2 only made $4.5 million at the domestic box office. It had a worse start than The Flash, which made $9.7 million, and The Marvels' $6.6. million from Thursday previews. The sequel is the final installment of the DCEU before it gets rebooted, and it seems that it will not beat the performance of the first movie. Considering its current earnings, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is only expected to make between $35 million and $40 million in the four-day holiday weekend, including Christmas Day on Monday, Variety reported. The expected earnings at the box office are not up to par.

When the first Aquaman film was released five years ago, it made $9 million for its Thursday previews -- the sequel only made half of that -- and $67 million for its opening weekend. Despite the modest opening, it soared and made $335 million in North America and $1.15 billion globally. For this year's DEC movies, The Flash made $55 million opening, Blue Beetle $25.4 million, and Shazam: Fury of the Gods $30.5 million. On Marvel Studios' end, The Marvels made the lowest opening by only collecting $47 million. However, Aquaman 2 is expected to make less than The Marvels and The Flash, with anticipated earnings as low as $35 million for its opening.

Challenges and Controversies

Aquaman 2 has a slim chance of winning the audience over the weekend because a diverse group of other movies are available for the festive season, like the animated Migration and Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell's rom-com Anyone but You. Additionally, Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet's Wonka is still showing. The box office champ last week is looking forward to making $21 to $23 million more in its second weekend. The poor performance of Aquaman 2 at the box office was not a total surprise. Many expressed their disapproval of the production's decision to keep Heard.

Several said they would not watch Aquaman 2 despite their fondness for Momoa because they didn't want to support any project with Heard on it. For the 37-year-old actress' part, she previously said during the televised defamation trial that she fought her way to keep the role, and her screentime was reportedly significantly reduced. Although Heard was still part of the film, Mera wasn't featured in the Aquaman 2 promotional poster and latest trailer released, perhaps to appease fans who said they would not watch the Aquaman sequel. It seemed that the efforts to keep Heard's involvement low-key were not enough to convince those people to change their minds because not as many watched the sequel. Also, one should not put all the blame for Aquaman 2's low earnings on Heard because there are other factors at play, like the timing of the release and the storyline. Its Rotten Tomatoes score is even one of DCEU's worst so far.