Despite being a box office flop at the time of its release, the DCEU’s final movie – Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom – is having somewhat of a resurgence. The ending of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom also marked the ending of the entire DCEU, bringing the fractured franchise to a close in favor of James Gunn’s impending reboot. The new DC Universe will officially begin with James Gunn’s Superman movie as the filmmaker looks to craft a much more focused, intertwined universe containing DC’s biggest heroes.
The DCEU timeline ending with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom felt strange, at the time, given the movie’s status as a fun, easygoing sequel to 2018’s Aquaman with no real bearing on the franchise’s wider narrative. Also, 2023 was a strange time for the DCEU, with the DCU’s Chapter One: Gods and Monsters having already been announced. This all led to Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom being a critical and commercial failure, yet it is undergoing a strange resurgence two years later.
The DCEU’s Final Movie Suffered From Its Place In The Franchise’s Timeline
Aquaman 2 Was Never Expected To Be Much Of A Success
Firstly, it is worth exploring exactly how and why Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom became a box office flop. As already alluded to, the DCEU movies of 2023 suffered from being classed as ᴅᴇᴀᴅ on arrival. James Gunn’s takeover of DC Studios was announced in late 2022, with January 2023 marking the filmmaker’s first announcement of the projects he was looking to craft to kickstart the DC Universe. Despite that, four DCEU movies were scheduled for 2023: Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, Blue Beetle, and, of course, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.
All four of these movies suffered from the somewhat apathy that had been created by the knowledge that the franchise in which they existed was over and that a new one was being created. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, as the last of the four, suffered too, earning only $439 million at the worldwide box office against a production budget of $215 million. When factoring in marketing and distribution costs, Aquaman 2 likely only just broke even for Warner Bros.
2018’s Aquaman was much more successful than its sequel, earning a worldwide box office total of $1.1 billion.
Aquaman 2 was also not as well-received critically as its predecessor. The movie earned only a 33% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with many critics likely feeling that same sense of apathy over the DCEU’s abrupt ending. Overall, Aquaman 2 was always placed in a difficult position as the last movie in a dying franchise, explaining its failure to capture the hearts and minds of audiences and critics alike.
Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom’s Streaming Success Breathes New Life Into The 2023 DCEU Movie
Aquaman Is Getting A Second Wind
What makes all of this interesting, however, is how well Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is recovering on streaming services. Almost two years later, CBR reported that Aquaman 2 cracked the top 10 on Netflix in 22 different countries, earning the number one most popular spot in six of these. This means that, despite not earning what Warner Bros.’ would have liked in theaters, Aquaman 2 is finding some legs in the realm of streaming. Although this streaming success will not lead to Aquaman 3 given the DCU’s imminent arrival, it is nice to know the film is redeeming itself.
Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom’s Streaming Status Highlights An Interesting Superhero Movie Trend
The Theater Is Not Always The Last Chance For A Superhero Movie These Days
To make matters even more intriguing, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is one of many examples of superhero movies succeeding on streaming services after flopping at the theatrical box office. Several DC movies have been known to do this, from James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman 1984 of the DCEU to standalone sequels like Joker: Folie à Deux. Even on the Marvel side of the pond, some movies have underwhelmed at the box office before going on to perform on Disney+.
Eternals is one such movie. Eternals earned only $402 million worldwide yet went down as the most-streamed movie of 2022 across the board. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is only the latest in a long line of superhero movies finding success in home markets after flopping in theaters. This raises the question of whether this trend is set to continue – perhaps with 2025 flops like Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts* – or if these figures are just the remnants of a difficult period at the box office overall for Hollywood, which 2023 evidently was.
