Aquaman’s cash haul about to cross $1 billion
Underwater superhero bucking convention to become DC’s top-earning title
So it turns out the secret to DC’s success on the big screen has nothing to do with Superman or Batman and everything to do with Aquaman.
The Warner Bros. flick about the King of the Seven Seas will soon cross $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales. It looks poised to become the top-grossing DC Comics movie ever — passing the critically acclaimed Dark Knight and Dark Knight Rises that feature Christian Bale as the caped crusader — and one of the top superhero movies of all time.
The unexpected success is good news for a studio that’s struggled to get the most out of its superheroes and has lagged behind Walt Disney Co.’s more appealing Marvel characters.
Featuring Game of Thrones actor Jason Momoa in the lead role, Aquaman is already a hit in North America and China, the two biggest film markets, and will build on that when it opens in Japan next month.
The picture has taken in $963 million worldwide so far and should reach $1.1 billion by the end of its run, according to Shawn Robbins of Box Office Pro.
That makes it No. 1 among the DC films that Warner Bros. has released since the studio introduced Henry Cavill to a mixed reception as the new Superman in 2013’s Man of Steel, directed by Zack Snyder.
That film kick-started an interconnected series of movies that includes Batman v Superman, Justice League, Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman.
With Aquaman, director James Wan managed to create an entertaining underwater world for the hero, who is half human and half Atlantean. Wan tells an origin story about a superhero who can communicate with marine life and must fight to claim his throne. “This character has been a bit of a joke in pop culture,” director Wan told Postmedia last month. “I wasn’t afraid to say, ‘This should be a fun movie.’ This should be a vibrant, colourful movie. The world wants it to be that. I went for that and the studio had the same feeling and confidence in what I was going for.”
In a separate interview, Momoa said the popularity of the character likely comes down to the fact that movie fans are thirsting for different superhero stories. “People want more. They’ve heard those other stories, and there’s plenty more to tell, but they want new ones. When Batman v Superman came out and it introduced Wonder Woman, she came in and blew it open.” Before its release in 2017, Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot said the heroine “deserved to have an origin story.”
“Every superhero we know, whether it’s Superman or Batman or Spider-Man or whoever it is, they all have their origin story and we always understand where they’re coming from and what made them become who they really are.”
The next movie in the DC lineup is Shazam! (April 5), which will be DC’s most “lighthearted movie” yet, director David F. Sandberg told Postmedia. It follows troubled 14-year-old Billy Batson (Asher Angel), who can transform into an adult superhero (Chuck star Zachary Levi).
“The big attraction for me with that character is the fact that every kid dreams of being Superman, right? I mean I certainly did, and (Billy Batson) is a kid that gets that chance,” the Lights Out director said. “It’ll be (the movie) Big with superpowers in a way. In terms of what people can expect, I think this will be one of the more fun or lighthearted movies so far in the DC universe. It certainly will be a departure.”
Director Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman 1984 — a followup to her hit Wonder Woman — is set for June 2020.
“On the one hand, I always believed that a good Wonder Woman movie could be so much more successful than people might have thought,” Jenkins said in an interview to promote Wonder Woman’s release on Blu-ray. “But the way that our particular film was embraced, not only as a Wonder Woman movie, has been so stunning and magical.”
Before taking on Aquaman, Wan was a success in the horror genre (including Saw and The Conjuring) and made his biggest hit in Furious 7 in the Universal Pictures Fast and Furious franchise. Taking on the sixth film in the DC series, he left behind stories set up by past instalments.
“I pretty much built this movie from scratch,” Wan said. With Aquaman a success, Warner Bros. will now offer up a mix of comic book movies. Jenkins said one of the things that excites her about DC is its “treasure trove of great characters.”
“I think there are a lot of directors doing cool things. I know the storylines for a lot of the films they are working on, and they are all vastly different with very different tones and very different styles of storytelling,” she said.
This year’s Joker origin tale will position the famed Batman villain in a new light. Early reports say star Joaquin Phoenix delivers a “heartbreaking” performance. On the horizon, Guardians of the Galaxy writer-director James Gunn will also take a stab at Suicide Squad 2. And a Flash solo movie with Ezra Miller is in the works.
In February 2020, the studio will also release a Harley Quinn spinoff with the bonkers title of Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). “It’s not a very serious movie, so we thought the title should reflect that,” star Margot Robbie told The Tonight Show last month. “Birds of Prey makes it sound really serious and that’s kind of like Harley adding her, ‘Don’t worry, I’m in this, too.’”
As for whether we’ll ever see a sequel to Justice League, Momoa is enthusiastic at the idea.
“If that … happens, they ’d better let me in,” he said. “I’d definitely like to come riding in on a tidal wave to whoop some ass.”