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Aquaman is Warner/DC's Branded Highest Grossing Film, Tops TDK

posted 6 years ago by NorrinRad (5469)
14 replies | jump to latest

From Boxofficemojo :

1 The Dark Knight Rises WB.....$1,084.9.....$448.1.....41.3%.....$636.8.....58.7%.....2012
2 Aquaman……………….....WB.....$1,090.8.....$316.6.....29.0%.....$774.2.....71.0%.....2018

The numbers don't lie and WB execs will no doubt plot a course and a direction that leans heavily into the Aquaman and Wonder Woman models for their future movie slate.

Aquaman leading the WB/DC films is quite stunning and something that WB execs never planned to have happen but are happy that it did.

[–] Satan2016 (25815) 6 years ago

Also hit #25 all-time on Tue: https://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/

[–] NorrinRad (5469) 6 years ago

And drops The Dark Knight Rises down to 25 as it moves up.

[–] Otter (24464) 6 years ago

See what happens when they drop the gloom-and-doom?

People who go to superhero movies want some fucking fun! I mean ask anyone, it shouldn't have taken them years and hundreds of millions of dollars spent to figure that out.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

The Nolan Batman movies were fine, but it was a bad direction to take with the DC universe in general. Too much doom and gloom, like you said.

[–] Otter (24464) 6 years ago

I never liked the Nolan movies much, although obviously some people did. Some people just love those dreary things!

But the DCEU seemed to think that bad imitation Nolan would make just as much money as the real thing, so of course they tried to badly imitate Nolan and made a hash of it. It's like they thought that dreary superheroes were an automatic moneymaker, and they didn't need the believability and originality that made the Nolan movies work.

Well, fun Superheroes really ARE an automatic moneymaker, if they can make more movies like "Aquaman" they can have a bit more of my money.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

The worst was the Fantastic Four movie (yes I know that's Marvel, but it did try to do the dark, serious approach). If ever a comic book movie needed a lighter tone, it was FF.

[–] Otter (24464) 6 years ago

I couldn't get through that one. I sincerely hope it's an all-time low for the comic-book-movie genre.

[–] NorrinRad (5469) 6 years ago

Personally I don't think that "Gloom and Doom" in and of itself was a mistaken endeavor by Warner/DC. The films weren't failures and maybe without studio interference and allowing Snyder's vision to play all the way out it might have provided a riveting set of films. They didn't have to be Blockbuster crowd pleasers in order to be highly entertaining.

There Is room in the audience's appetite for superhero movies for a large range of experiences.

Personally though I am NOT going to defend BvS for injecting Doomsday into the mix. That was a tactical mistake of making the movie way too over crowded with concepts and ideas; and Supes' death and resurrection were indeed unearned and unmoving emotional events. I just didn't care.

[–] Otter (24464) 6 years ago

I'll put it this way... IMHO a gloom-and-doom movie *has* to be well done. A light-hearted bad movie like "Aquaman" is almost as much fun as a movie that's actually good, but a badly done gloom-and-doom like "Batman vs. Superman" is unbearable.

If you liked or sort-of-liked Snyder's films, then great. It's nice that somebody did.

[–] NorrinRad (5469) 6 years ago

If you liked or sort-of-liked Snyder's films, then great. It's nice that somebody did.

Part of my attachment to any of the CBM films is the execution of a connected and shared universe by Marvel that hooks you in and almost demands that you consume all of the products.

Warner/DC benefitted from Marvel's effort and the expansion created in the audience, just as I contend that Aquaman benefits from the expanded acceptance of Superhero films globally. It took time and films. To your point "A light-hearted bad movie like "Aquaman" is almost as much fun as a movie that's actually good, but a badly done gloom-and-doom like "Batman vs. Superman" is unbearable., and international audiences agree. Just look at the bulk of where Aquaman's numbers are coming from. I believe that Marvel has created a coattail for movies to ride on internationally.

I didn't say I LIKED Snyder's films just that they had an interesting but different vision. My aversion to the film and his films is that I don't like his characterizations still but was willing to see where it would go. Not my Superman, not my Batman. For that matter Nolan's Batman is just BINO for me also, Batman In Name Only. World's greatest detective? Really??

No one asked but my favorite Batman movie, depiction and characterization is Mask Of The Phantasm.

Serious, moody, dark, fun and wildly entertaining.

[–] NorrinRad (5469) 6 years ago

Again, not endorsing Snyder's vision but here is a video that at best explains where he might have been trying to go:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Td0Sq51XXE

I found this after my last post and not even because I was looking for it either.

[–] DarthRoger (867) 6 years ago

This box office feat confirms what everyone - except executives at Warner Bro's - figured out years ago. "Dark and Gritty" was not a strategy for making every other comic book movie not starting with BATMAN in the title.

Looks like they will finally (literally) be buying a clue.

Welcome to the big leagues of comic book movies, WB! It only took 10 year and wrecking the mystiques of Superman, Batman and the Justice League to figure it out.

I suppose it's better late than never but the cost was awfully high.

[–] BrunoAntony (1198) 6 years ago

The movie made a wild amount of money in China because Chinese audiences love giant creatures and watery adventures (like “Pacific Rim”, which was a flop in the US).

It has nothing to do with “doom and gloom”...

[–] NorrinRad (5469) 6 years ago

My response for some may reek of "Identity Politics" but it appears to me that Jason Momoa (much like The Rock) has that appeal as an Asia-Pacific Islander and is easily accepted on screen for an audience that has yet to see themselves represented within the Hollywood Superhero genre. Along with Kevin Tsujihara (Marvel CEO), James Wan Director, Walter Hamada (President DC-Based Film Production), Aquaman has a pretty strong East Asian management presence.

But it was Zack Snyder who casted Jason for the role who thought he was auditioning for Lobo (even though there was never any indication that Lobo was to be in JL) when Jason went in for Justice League. WB did double duty attempting to crack the China market with intense marketing also leaning on their strengths:

But Warner Bros. has a new movie on the horizon it hopes will reverse this trend: Aquaman, an origin story about the King of the Seas starring charismatic Game of Thrones veteran Jason Momoa in the lead role. Advance word of mouth has been pretty good, and now Deadline reports that the movie raked in an estimated $24.6 million on its opening day in the Chinese market. That’s the biggest opening day ever for a WB movie in that region, and the best December opening day ever. Projections show it could take in over $80 million in its opening weekend.

It’s unusual for a Hollywood movie to debut in China before it opens in the U.S., but it does happen. (And industry leaders say that China’s film market will surpass the United States’ pretty soon, so expect it to happen more often.) Warner Bros. went hard on marketing Aquaman in China, with Momoa, star Amber Heard and director James Wan all making visits. It looks like it paid off.
Of course, there’s lot of marketing happening for Westerners, too. Momoa dropped by The Tonight Show to chuck tridents with Jimmy Fallon just the other day…

Some credit has to go to Geoff Johns and ??? for creating the lighter tone for both Aquaman and WW for eschewing the Darker tone set by Snyder who did receive Executive Producer credits for both films. In the case of Aquaman the new WB management knew exactly what it wanted to do to promote and exploit a "Strength". Who knew they could pull this off?

Of course though Geoff Johns was fired.