Aquaman is off to a strong start for its first weekend in North American theaters, with James Wan’s DCEU flick comfortably outperforming its competition on Friday night with a gross of $27.7 million.
At this rate, Arthur Curry’s solo debut is tracking for a total of $68.8 million over the course of its first three days. This figure is very much in line with the projection offered by Deadline earlier this week, who also forecast a total of at least $120 million over the full five-day holiday weekend.
Second place, meanwhile, looks to be a tight race between Bumblebee and Mary Poppins Returns. While Travis Knight’s Transformers spinoff took in $8.3 million domestically on Friday and is said to be heading for a weekend total of $22.6 million, Rob Marshall’s musical fantasy – which entered theaters last Wednesday – managed $6.9 million yesterday and is projected to earn a total of $22.3 million from Friday to Sunday.
But suffice to say, Aquaman comes out the clear winner in a month that’s already seen continued success for the film overseas. Worldwide, the movie has already pushed past the $360 million mark, thanks in part to the feature’s record-breaking figures in the China market.
From the look of things, Aquaman is well on its way to landing the sequel that Warner Bros. so desires, whether Wan is still on board or not. But regardless of what projects lie in the DCEU’s future, it’s clear that this cinematic universe is in a better place now, commercially speaking, than it was at this time last year in the wake of Justice League’s lackluster performance. And we’ll find out if Warner can sustain this success when DC’s Shazam! arrives in theaters on April 5th, 2019.
