As Aquaman continues its formidable run in cinemas, not only is Arthur Curry’s solo debut on the verge of being the highest-grossing entry of the DCEU, but is even doing pretty well for itself by the standard of MCU flicks.
At the time of writing, James Wan’s latest feature has taken in upwards of $846.3 million at the global box office, which puts it ahead of 11 of the 20 Marvel Cinematic Universe films released so far. The last MCU entry that Aquaman surpassed was Guardians of the Galaxy, which managed a worldwide total of $773.3 million back in 2014, and at the rate the movie’s currently going, you can expect it to beat Thor: Ragnarok ($854 million), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ($863.8 million) and Spider-Man: Homecoming ($880.2 million) soon enough.
Once Aquaman has surpassed Peter Parker’s last solo outing, however, the chances of the film rising further up the ranking is pretty slim, with Captain America: Civil War being the next to beat with a staggering total of $1.153 billion. But while the biggest DCEU flick is still only an upper-mid-level MCU film, Wan’s movie has given Warner Bros. plenty of reason to be optimistic about the franchise’s future.
To break down that $846.3 million figure a little, Aquaman’s global total comes primarily from the $623.5 million it’s made overseas, with the pic sitting as easily the highest-grossing DCEU entry outside of North America. On the domestic front, things haven’t been going quite so well, with the movie’s $222.8 million haul placing it at the bottom of the DCEU ranking, though you can expect it to at least pass Justice League’s $229 million US and Canada gross before its run in cinemas is over.
All in all, it’s abundantly clear that Aquaman has earned the sequel that Warner so desires, but before we see what’s next for Arthur Curry, we’ll be finding out how the DCEU follows up this success when Shazam! hits theaters on April 5th, 2019.
