Aquaman movie sequel's prospects look dismal
John Nolte at Breitbart commented on how bad it's looking for the sequel to the live action Aquaman movie:
As Nolte further noted, it looks like the Aquaman sequel will fare far less well than even The Marvels did. It's long past time that Time Warner stopped adapting DC into live action movies and TV, and certainly time they sold off the publishing arm they've long made clear they don't care how badly ends up abused by woke ideologues.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is scoring dreadful reviews and even more dreadful box office projections.Gunn's already given plenty of signs why he's bad news from a PR perspective in the past decade regardless. And he has indicated he's got no issue with wokeness. And, Nolte's correct that the Snyder era of DC adaptations was pretty dreadful, with any successes few and far between. It even contained traces of what's since snowballed into a serious problem - diversity pandering, race-swapping and left-wing political messaging allusions - so what's the big deal in hindsight? The favoratism for Batman over Superman in the Justice League film is another grating letdown that didn't improve matters.
This sequel to the 2018 blockbuster (and one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen) is projected to open between $29 million and $40 million over the upcoming four-day Christmas weekend. If that proves to be the case, we’re looking at yet another superhero catastrophe. Tee hee. Back in 2018, the original Aquaman opened to $68 million and went on to gross $335 million domestic and another $817 million overseas, for a total global haul of $1.15 billion. But that was at the height of the superhero frenzy that has since (thanks to countless bad movies saddled with fun-destroying identity politics) turned into a fizzle.
Aquaman 2 reportedly cost around $200 million to produce. Rumors of desperate reshoots haven’t helped. Then there’s co-star Amber Heard, whose reputation took a crap (pun intended) after a court said she’d defamed her ex-husband Johnny Depp as an abuser. If I were king, people who make false accusations like that would face a mandatory year in prison.
Adding another $100 million to the overall budget for marketing and whatnot is probably pretty safe. So this sucker will have to cross $550 million to $650 million just to break even.
Not helping is a flood of terrible reviews. With 72 reviews posted, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom sits at a deadly 39 percent rotten score at Rotten Tomatoes.
Lost Kingdom is the final film from Warner Bros. Discovery’s pretty disastrous Zack Snyder era. From here, James Gunn and his partner will oversee the DC Universe. Next up is another Superman movie no one asked for. If the James Gunn who delivered the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy makes that Superman movie, there’s some hope. Not much. Some. But if it’s the James Gunn who made that dreadful Suicide Squad (2021), there’s no hope.
As Nolte further noted, it looks like the Aquaman sequel will fare far less well than even The Marvels did. It's long past time that Time Warner stopped adapting DC into live action movies and TV, and certainly time they sold off the publishing arm they've long made clear they don't care how badly ends up abused by woke ideologues.
Labels: Aquaman, dc comics, dreadful writers, sales
