Though it was once talked about in the same breath as The Avengers, this past weekend has been a sobering one for Warner Bros. executives. After initial estimates put Justice League at $96 million for its home turf debut, the final numbers are now in and unfortunately, it’s worse than we thought, as the pic only made a measly $94 million in North America.
It’s not a disaster by any means, and this is only $2 million less than what was reported yesterday, but given that Zack Snyder’s superhero tentpole had been tracking for $120 million prior to release, thereby lumping it in the same ballpark as Thor: Ragnarok ($127.7 million), Justice League hasn’t got off to the best of starts. And that’s really been the story for Warner’s mega-movie over the past few days, when the critical consensus deemed the CG-laden epic to be a “big, beautiful mess.” Ouch.
It gets worse, too. At $94 million, Justice League‘s domestic opening is now the lowest of any film in the DC Extended Universe. Man of Steel kicked things off in 2013 with $116.6 million, before Batman V Superman raised the game with $166m. Later that year, Suicide Squad closed out the summer with a bow of $133.7 million, while Wonder Woman managed to clear $103 million back in June.
Again, $94 million is hardly the end of the world and for almost any other pic, it’d be a reason to celebrate. But for a movie like Justice League, that figure is sure to have studio execs sweating as they rush to figure out which direction to take the DCEU in from here. Reports have pointed to a de-emphasis on the League and more focus on Wonder Woman and her universe moving forward, but Warner Bros. has yet to make any official announcements.
It’s not like we expect the franchise to crumble, of course, but there’s almost certainly going to be some pretty major changes being made in the weeks and months to come, and it’ll be fascinating to watch how the fallout from Justice League impacts future projects.
