2023 was the year of “superhero fatigue.” Whether or not the affliction is real or not, the box office certainly seemed to struggle with exactly the sort of films that once seemed as bulletproof as the protagonists. While a couple of superhero movies still did well, many fell well below the expectations. While Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is certainly among them, the movie is still doing quite a bit better than some of its compatriots.
Aquaman 2 has currently grossed about $334 million worldwide, which is a far cry from the $1 billion that the first Aquaman was able to produce, making it the highest-grossing DC movie to date. However, it’s still better than the $266 million global take for The Flash, and it’s far above and beyond the $132 million global take that Shazam: Fury of the Gods did. The Flash only has an $8 million lead on Aquaman 2 domestically, which will almost certainly be erased in the next week.
So while there’s no argument that fans were not as excited for Lost Kingdom the way they were for the first Aquaman, or most other DC movies in general, the final movie of the current DC universe isn’t a complete write-off. This is honestly pretty good news. It’s an indication that a lot of fans certainly didn’t give up entirely on DC once the James Gunn-led DCU reboot was announced. It was beginning to look that way.
Movies from both Marvel and DC struggled this year, and there was every indication going in that Aquaman 2 was going to be a complete loss. The movie simply wasn’t given a great deal of attention, similar to the way that The Flash and Shazam 2 were handled, so there was every reason to expect the box office to match. Aquaman 2 still had an estimated $200 million production budget, which, when added to marketing and distribution costs, means the movie has maybe broken even at the box office. So it isn’t a massive hit, but at this point breaking even may be seen as a win.
There will be no official upcoming DC movies in the new continuity this year. Only the Joker 2 release date is set for 2024, and that movie, which along with the Robert Pattinson-led Batman franchise is moving forward as its own story not connected to the DCU story. James Gunn’s new project will launch in 2024 with the animated Creature Commandos series on Max.
Fans have expressed some trepidation about the lack of big-screen DC material in the next year, though Gunn himself sees the lack of DC as a positive, and something of a clean break from the old franchise. If there is any “superhero fatigue” in the world, 2024 looks to be the year of an attempt to alleviate it, as even the MCU is only releasing one big screen project in 2024, and among upcoming Marvel movies, Deadpool 3 will be anything but the norm for the MCU.
