Aquaman 2 Box Office Makes It The Fourth Top-Grossing Superhero Movie Of 2023

James Wan’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom rises above all 2023 DC movies to become the fourth most successful superhero film of the year. With Aquaman 3 unlikely to be made and no need to connect the first sequel’s plot to the wider DCEU due to the franchise’s upcoming reboot, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom could focus on what made 2018’s Aquaman so successful. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom‘s cast has Jason Momoa in the lead role, Yahja Abdul-Mateen II’s Black Manta and Patrick Wilson’s Orm returned, and the movie’s VFX work is just as impressive as the first installment’s.

Yet, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom had various obstacles to overcome. For instance, the end of the DCEU lowered expectations, as it guaranteed that DC wouldn’t set up future sequels or crossovers in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom‘s ending and post-credits scene. The DCEU’s negative streak diminished the hopes of a strong final installment, and the recent dip in superhero movies’ general profits cast a shadow over the Aquaman sequel. However, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has exceeded expectations. While it still underperformed in comparison to the first installment and other box office hits, the Aquaman sequel has managed to outperform other 2023 Marvel and DC superhero movies that had more variables in their favor.

Aquaman 2 Trails Behind Only Quantumania, GOTG 3 & Across The Spider-Verse

Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom Is On Track To Match Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania

Against the odds, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom‘s earnings surpassed The Flash, DC’s most anticipated movie in 2023.It also left the MCU’s The Marvels in the dust, having crossed its total earnings in just two weeks. On top of that, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom almost triples Shazam: Fury of the Gods and Blue Beetle‘s total earnings in its third week in theaters. The only three movies the Aquaman sequel hasn’t matched at the box office are Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. On its fourth weekend in theaters, here’s what the data looks like:

With at least a couple of weeks left in theaters, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is on track to reach the $400 million mark, which was last achieved within the DCEU by 2018’s Aquaman. In fact, just by reaching Black Adam‘s $393 million mark, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom can officially become the highest grossing DCEU movie since 2018’s Aquaman. On a less positive note, however, the only other MCU movie Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has surpassed at the worldwide box office besides The Marvels is 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, though it can still pass Captain America: The First Avenger, Black Widow, and Eternals if it reaches $401 million.

2023 Was The Second Year In A Row Of No Superhero Movies Earning $1 Billion

Spider-Man: No Way Home Remains The Last Superhero Movie To Reach $1 Billion

Fourteen Marvel and DC movies make up the $1 billion club, inaugurated in 2008 by The Dark Knight. Despite reaching three $1 billion movies in 2018 and breaking a record in 2019 with the $2.8 billion-mark pioneer Avengers: Endgame, the superhero genre’s box office dropped drastically in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a difficult task for any comic book movie to match the previous two $1 billion heavy hitters, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Joker, but the only candidate for such a feat was, of course, Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Spider-Man: No Way Home still faced the same obstacles as other superhero movies released during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it had the benefit of rumors, fan theories, and plenty of discussion around the appearance of all three live-action Spider-Men. Since then, no superhero movie has managed to replicate the same kind of anticipation, including The Flash, which also featured more than two live-action Batmen and a litany of multiversal cameos. In the absence of $1 billion successes, feats like Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom‘s $340+ million milestone is a positive enough surprise among a list of Marvel and DC underperformers.

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