MOVIE NEWS – Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom sinks even further in its 3-day opening weekend predictions, significantly beating Shazam! Behind the wrath of the gods.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’s opening weekend falls below expectations. The film is the first direct sequel to the 2018 blockbuster Aquaman, which remains the highest-grossing installment in the DC Extended Universe. The film sees the return of Aquaman (Jason Momoa), last seen in the aftermath of The Flash, teaming up with his unreliable half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) to take on returning villain Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II).

According to Deadline, predictions for the 3-day opening weekend of Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom were deflated on a quiet Christmas Eve Sunday. Its domestic opening weekend is now estimated at $27.6 million, well below the $30.1 million total that DC’s previous 2023 flop, Shazam! Wrath of the Gods earned its own opening weekend. That amount would also give Aquaman 2 the fourth-worst opening weekend in the franchise, behind Suicide Squad, Blue Beetle and Wonder Woman 1984.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom still have a chance to grow

This opening result for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is disappointing considering the film’s production budget is over $200 million. However, it still has a chance to grow as the show continues in the coming weeks and months. Holiday releases tend to come out relatively flat week-to-week, so the New Year’s period and January could provide a valuable boost for the title.

While Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’s negative reviews threatened to affect the film with a 36% Rotten Tomatoes score, it’s actually already projected to turn things around with a solid Christmas day. Its predicted 4-day earnings are between 38 and 39 million dollars at the domestic box office. The film’s international figures have not yet been calculated, which could also give the film a serious boost. This helped the original Aquaman launch during the 2018 holiday season, bringing in nearly two and a half times the film’s $335 million domestic take in international markets.

The first Aquaman earned $1.15 billion worldwide

Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom can also benefit from the lack of competition throughout early 2024. While January has some notable wide releases, including Mean Girls and Night Swimming , the next big-budget marquee movie won’t hit theaters until after the Feb. 2 release of Henry Cavill’s espionage film Argylle , the next big and a superhero film only when Madame Web debuts on Valentine’s Day.

Movie Metacritic Value by the way, compared to a film of this caliber, it is terribly weak, it does not even reach 5/10 (4.4/10)

Another interesting thing is that we didn’t even have a press screening of the film, which is a fairly likely sign for a DC film that the film was a huge flop.

Source: Screenrant