2023 Year Review The latest release, Aquaman 2, performed below average at the box office, earning only $80 million, of which $30 million came from China. China's box office contribution is huge, but Chinese audiences can't save the film. In stark contrast to the success of the first 2018 Aquaman in China, this Aquaman 2 has a huge gap at the box office. Chinese netizens said: I'm tired of seeing the same routine, and there is nothing new. It's okay to eat popcorn occasionally, who can stand it every day.
The DC Cinematic Universe has finally come to an end, ending a decade-long movie IP that has never really exploded. With the launch of the long-awaited sequel to Aquaman, the series has also come to an end, making way for James Gunn's new and improved DC Universe. In DC's usual style, Aquaman 2's opening performance can only be used"It's terrible"to describe.
Wen Ziren's "Aquaman 2" opened with a three-day opening box office of $27.6 million over the weekend in North America. That's a significant drop from the $67 million opening weekend of 2018's first installment, Aquaman. It was the second-lowest-grossing opening film of any DC movie, behind only "Blue Beetle's" disastrous $25 million.
Due to the poor performance of more and more superhero movies, the controversy surrounding the film, and the general aesthetic fatigue of audiences, "Aquaman 2" has become a box office poison, and it remains to be seen if DC can recover its decline.
The aesthetic fatigue of superhero movies is unavoidable
Superhero fatigue"Shows that the audience is tired of superhero-centric blockbusters. For a while,"Superhero fatigue"It seems more of a DC problem, as Marvel's movies continue to prosper even after the release of Avengers: Endgame. However, in the past year, superhero-related movies have increased in the first way, causing aesthetic fatigue among audiences.
DC hasn't had a big hit since 2018's $1 billion Aquaman, which benefited from the box office in Chinese mainland. Since then, three films in the series have been released in succession"Bombshell", respectively, "Shazam!", which was released this yearFury of the Gods, The Flash, and Blue Beetle. The Avengers' glory days are over, though, as even Marvel Studios wasn't spared – they recently suffered a major loss with Captain Marvel 2, which ended its theatrical journey with a total box office of $200 million.
It turns out that audience interest in superhero-related movies is slowly waning, and "Aquaman 2" is the latest trigger for this audience offensive. Since 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home, no superhero movie has ever crossed the $1 billion mark. Has the audience been overwhelmed with too much superhero content?Or is it just a matter of a bad movie?
"Aquaman 2" has a poor reputation
Far from being a shocking film, the first Aquaman received only 66% positive reviews, which is a decent score for a blockbuster. Despite its poor word-of-mouth, the film was well received by audiences, thanks in part to Jason Momoya's infectious personality, which was a highlight even in the theatrical version of Justice League. In addition to this, Wen Ziren also completed an impossible task, which is to show the whole picture of Atlantis underwater, and bring the audience into an underwater world full of visual effects.
For film critics, "Aquaman 2" feels like a movie that goes through the motions, without any novelty or appeal. The film has a critic approval rating of just 36%.