Why is Aquaman’s DC Highest Grossing Film?

Why is Aquaman’s DC Highest Grossing Film?

Aquaman released in December 2018, and it was the sixth film in the DCEU, and eight years later it still holds the record for being DC’s highest grossing film. It is such a surprising feat, given that it is nobody’s favorite DC or superhero movie. So why did Aquaman become DC’s highest grossing films? Here are a few reasons why it reached this milestone!

• Reason #1: Comic Book Movie Peak: The 2010s were the decade in which comic book movies dominated at the box office. Where even poorly received superhero movies like Suicide Squad (2016) makes $750 million. Every time a comic book movie comes out, you could guarantee that it will be a hit at the box office. So, you apply this logic to Aquaman and it certainly helped the film get a $1 billion boost. You must remember the timeline in which Aquaman came out. It was the same year as Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, and Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, where those are of course Marvel movies that have nothing to do with comic book movies. But they were all very positively received, which continued the excitement for comic book movies. It only solidified the fact that if you put even a good comic book movie, it will still do very well. Around this time, we got the first trailer for Endgame, which once again only grew the excitement for comic book movies. Especially when the back half of the 2010s, with the MCU just teeing off and the DCEU happening, even though it was not as successful, it was still exciting to see all these comic book movies do well. Since comic book movies were events, you wanted to be a part of the event and see the new comic book movie so you can talk about it at work the next day or on Monday. I feel like if this movie was to come out about five years earlier or later, then it would not have made $1 billion and be DC’s highest grossing film. 

• Reason #2: It Feels Like the MCU: This reason is piggybacking off what I was just talking about, but Aquaman released when comic book movies were on a high and part of the reason for that was because of the MCU. Which to this day is still the biggest franchise in history, that is still putting out movies to this day. Part of the reason for that is because they made four quadrant movies. If you do not know what this is saying, it is because this idea that four quadrant movies appeal to everybody. The four quadrants are men over 35, women over 35, men under 35, and women under 35. The MCU was successful creating movies that fit into those four quadrants. You look at Aquaman and it fits into that four-quadrant system. Everybody, one of the demographics listed, can watch, and enjoy Aquaman. That is why some of Zack Snyder’s DC movies underperform, is because he does not make four quadrants. On paper they should be four quadrant movies, but Zack Snyder has such a specific style to his film that it polarizes audiences, and a lot of people do not like his movies. Beyond that, Aquaman is a fun, funny, and lively film. It has a lot of jokes in here and has non-stop action, that is something that the MCU did so well. Despite it being a DC movie from a completely different studio, it is the DCEU movie that feels the most like a MCU film. 

• Reason #3: Killed it in China: One of the interesting things about Aquaman’s box office is the gap between its domestic box office and its international box office. If you look at the film’s opening weekend, it made $67 million and it ended its domestic run at $335 million. You do not open to $67 million domestically and have a domestic run of $335 million and make $1 billion. Part of the reason the film made a lot of money was because it was big in China. If you look at China’s box office for Aquaman, it opened to $93 million and finished its run making $291 million. It is about $40 million less in China compared to the United States. As a point of reference, Justice League (2017) just one year earlier made $106 million in its entire run in China. For whatever reason, Aquaman just killed it in China and that is partly why this movie made $1 billion. You look at the China box office for the last two Avatar films, and they did very well in China. I do not know if its water centric movies just play very well in China or what. But if you look at the domestic numbers for Aquaman, they are not what gets a movie to $1 billion, so the international numbers are a big reason it got a box office boost. 
  

• Reason #4: Christmas Release Date: Going along those same lines, Aquaman had great legs. A movie does not make a $1 billion, on a $67 million opening without having good legs. The fact that this movie had a December release date meant that it had great legs during the Christmas corridor and into January which was a dead zone. What is most important is that it had great legs going up against other high-profile films. The week before we got Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, and the same week as Aquaman we got Bumblebee and Mary Poppins Returns. Which meant that over the course of two weeks we got four big, budgeted films and Aquaman still managed to make $1 billion. It was the number one movie domestically for four weekends in a row. It is a very accessible film that people of all ages can enjoy, going back to this idea of a four-quadrant film. It is not a sequel to anything, so people can watch this movie without having to do any homework. I think if you release this same movie in May in the middle of the summer, I do not think Aquaman would have made $1 billion. I still think it would’ve done solid numbers, but significantly less then what it did with. December release date. 
  

• Reason #5: Solid Reviews: Aquaman is an interesting comic book movie because it is a $1 billion film, people clearly liked it enough to see it again. But you have conversations with people about what their favorite DC movies or what their favorite comic book movies are, nobody is saying Aquaman. Most people are positive about it, like me. I like the film and think it is one of the better DCEU films. But just because it is one of the better DCEU films, does not mean that it is a top tier film of the genre. Currently the film holds a 66% on Rotten Tomatoes with 411 reviews counted. It got an A- on CinemaScore. Both critics and audiences liked this film, audiences more than critics. But the simple truth is that Aquaman is a film that’s unassuming and people liked. The movie was not trying to be DC’s biggest or best movie; they just focused on making a movie that was fun and high energy and put a slime on people’s faces. That is exactly the movie that we got. It also helped that it was a bit of a palette cleanser after the Zack Snyder films got dark. Wonder Woman came out the year before and got very solid reviews, but you look at the scores for the other early DCEU films and they were not great. So, the fact that Aquaman comes along and gets a 66% is not great for MCU standards, but for the DCEU at that point in time it was a good score.