Hollywood is going overboard with excitement over the success of \u201cAquaman.\u201d The Warner Bros. film featuring the cheesy DC Comics character is having a\u2026<\/b>
\nHollywood is going overboard with excitement over the success of \u201cAquaman.\u201d
The Warner Bros. film featuring the cheesy DC Comics character is having a fine time at the international box office, having taken in $751 million so far. But a glut of slavish stories would have you believe it\u2019s the rarest of phenomenons; the Northern Lights of cinema. No movie has EVER been so successful!
\u201c \u2018Aquaman\u2019 Box Office Heads for $900M in Big Splash for Warner Bros.,\u201d writes the Hollywood Reporter. And, \u201cHow \u2018Aquaman\u2019 Became the hit DC Films Needed and Deserved,\u201d a Forbes headline reads.
Settle down, fellas. This isn\u2019t \u201cTitanic\u201d or \u201cAvatar.\u201d \u201cAquaman\u201d is on par with most of the DC Extended Universe films. In fact, it\u2019s currently the third highest grossing after \u201cBatman v Superman\u201d and \u201cWonder Woman.\u201d The movie only just edged out \u201cSuicide Squad,\u201d which hauled in $746 million worldwide, and that at the same point in its run had made $53 million more than \u201cAquaman\u201d domestically.
Indeed, at the domestic box office, \u201cAquaman\u201d looks a lot less impressive. Right now, it sits at $188 million \u2014 sixth-best in the DC Extended Universe. Forbes notes, rightly, that it had one of the franchise\u2019s smallest drops from its first Friday to its second \u2014 just 47 percent. However, its opening weekend take of $67 million is also sixth-best in the franchise \u2014 about $100 million less than \u201cBatman v Superman.\u201d
So where are most of its gold doubloons coming from? China, a notoriously fickle market where foreign films must be approved by secretive regulators to play there. Those regulators report to \u2014 I kid you not \u2014 the Department of Propaganda. When comic book movies do get approval, they tend to perform well because they lack any cultural specificity, kind of like \u201cCats.\u201d The bland \u201cVenom\u201d had a very successful run in the country this year, too.
Now, after playing in China for about a month, \u201cAquaman\u201d has fallen to local movies you\u2019ve never heard of: \u201cKill Mobile\u201d and \u201cMojin: The Worm Valley.\u201d Its armor is hardly impenetrable, and the Chinese income could slow from a gush to a drip.
Sure, $751 million is a lot of money. The film could, conceivably, reach $1 billion worldwide. But is that such an extraordinary feat for a superhero film anymore, with the genre\u2019s extremely broad appeal and extra cash from IMAX screenings? Not really. \u201cCaptain America: Civil War\u201d did it, \u201cBlack Panther\u201d did it, \u201cThe Avengers\u201d did it. Hell, \u201cAvengers: Infinity War\u201d made $2 billion. I say let the flacks do the trumpeting.<\/p>\n