Is Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom Doomed?
Late this year Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is (supposed) to hit theaters and this film has been delayed and has done massive re-shoots. And a lot of us are starting to raise concern about the film, is it in trouble? Here are my thoughts on the subject matter. Let’s get started!
The Backstory: Basically this film was supposed to come out last December but through delays it’s coming out this December. And they finished filming this film in January 2022, a year and half ago they finished filming for this film. By the time this movie comes out in December 2023, it would have been almost TWO years since they finished filming this movie. In that, there’s been a lot happening with WB, James Gunn was announced as the new CEO of DC where he’s rebooting everything. Because of that they changed the ending of The Flash multiple times, which means they changed this film multiple times. Where the original ending for The Flash was going to have Michael Keaton be the DCEU’s new Batman, replacing Ben Affleck basically. He was going to be Batman in the Batgirl movie. But that movie got canceled, so they changed the ending again. Which means they re-shot Michael Keaton’s scene with Ben Affleck. This all was revealed around the time that Batgirl was canceled last August. They’ve done re-shoots for the film constantly. When Partick Wilson (Ocean Master) was promoting Insidious: The Red Door he said in June he did more re-shoots for the film. They did another round of test screenings for the film, apparently Ben Affleck’s scene was cut. James Gunn put out a statement that said he didn’t want to promise a universe they weren’t going to follow-up on. They’ve also done multiple test screenings for the film, I guess some people saw this film in April 2022. So they’ve been doing test screenings for the film for a long time. February some of the reactions from the test screenings were coming out, reactions calling it the worst DCEU movie and calling it boring. I’m not sure what the recent test screening’s reactions have been. So that’s a basic overview of the production, mainly post-production of this film.
Am I Worried For the Film?: The film is about 5 months away (hopefully) from releasing into theaters. We haven’t gotten any trailers for the film, I’m going to guess around Blue Beetle we’ll get the first trailer for the film. So I don’t have much excitement for this film, based on what they’ve shared with us. Like I said, we don’t have a trailer so I don’t know the plot or tone of the film. But when all of this stuff is coming out about the film prior to any marketing being done, it puts a bad taste in your mouth. It makes me cynical and skeptical of the film. I think people’s overall excitement for the film is going WAY down. Am I worried the film will be mediocre or bad? No, those reactions we got back in February I don’t know how true those were, if that’s how the actual movie is. I’m going to guess the film is going to be fun and enjoyable, it’s going to be a middle of the road film that is fun enough. That’s what I’m expecting for the film, and I don’t think the movie will not deliver that.
The Box Office: The part I’m worried about with this film is its box office. I’m going to guess the film is going to disappoint a lot at the box office. The budget for the film is about $205 million, I believe that’s more than the first film. It’s about $15-$20 million less than The Flash’s budget. So the film needs to make $450-$500 to be profitable and I’m guessing that’s going to be what the film is going to do. It’s going to make around $500 million worldwide, $180-$200 domestically is my guess. Another reason why it’ll be disappointing is the first film made $1.1 billion at the box office. That’s crazy to me, that’s crazy that Aquaman is the highest grossing DC movie. It’s not The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight, Joker, or even a Superman movie. No, it’s Aquaman, a movie that NOBODY considers one of the great comic book movies out there, nobody has it as one of the DCEU’s best films. So I think this film is going to do about half, maybe even less than what the first film did. The troubled production mixed with the mixed reviews for the film, I think is going to hurt this film at the box office. But it’s not just that, I think James Gunn’s DC universe is going to hurt the film like how it hurt Fury of the Gods and The Flash. I think the film is 2-3 years too late, I think if this film came out in 2020 or 2021 it would have been fine. But obviously it was scheduled for then, most likely would have been delayed because of COVD. Over the past week and a half, two weeks there’s been speculation that this movie, Dune: Part II, and Wonka are going to be delayed to 2024. If that happens, if this movie gets delayed to 2024 I think this film might be hurt even more at the box office.
CLOSING THOUGHTS: I’m concerned about this film, I don’t know how well it’s going to do this December. I could see Wonka making a bigger splash at the box office, I think there’s a chance that Wonka could beat this movie’s box office. It’s also weird those films are coming a week apart because they’re both Warner Brothers films. So they’re going to be competing with themselves, that’s weird. I think one of them should move around a bit so they don’t compete with one another. But as for my closing thoughts on this, I’m worried for the film however, I don’t think it’s doomed. I think the buzz needs to be good and I think the trailers need to do a good job of selling the film. If they’re able to do that and there’s a lot of good buzz surrounding the film, the film will be fine. But I do think some of the factors as to why Fury of the Gods and The Flash bombed. Where it’s very clear that the DCEU is ending after this movie, I think that’s going to hurt it. And that it’s 2-3 years too late, will hurt it. But if the trailer can sell the movie and there is good buzz surrounding the film, it’s not doomed.
Comments