Ruben Fleischer’s Venom was a film that succeeded beyond all expectations, defying lousy reviews with its record-breaking run at the box office. So while the new Aquaman movie has benefited from a much stronger buzz than Eddie Brock’s solo debut, the fact that the feature has now surpassed the Tom Hardy-led flick in domestic gross is still nothing to be sniffed at.
Forbes reports that Aquaman has taken in a total of $216.3 million in its first 12 days in North American theaters, placing the movie just ahead of Venom’s domestic total of $213.2 million while also beating out the likes of Solo: A Star Wars Story and Ant-Man and the Wasp. At this rate, the James Wan-helmed film is expected to surpass Mission: Impossible – Fallout’s figure of $220 million by the end of the day. Better yet, with no major competition arriving in cinemas until Glass on January 18th, Arthur Curry’s first solo outing is likely to stay number one at the box office for the next two weekends.
For all its success, Aquaman is currently on track to be the second-lowest-grossing DCEU entry on a domestic level, ahead of only the commercially lackluster Justice League. In terms of global total, however, the film is on course to being the highest-grossing release of its cinematic universe, with the flick already sitting at the number one spot for overseas totals.
As it stands, the movie still sits behind Wonder Woman and Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, which ended their respective theatrical runs with global grosses of $821.8 million and $873.6 million, but if recent projections are anything to go by, then Aquaman might ultimately pass the $1 billion mark before its run in theaters is through. We’ll find out soon enough if the film can scale such commercial heights, but in the meantime, Warner Bros. is gearing up to promote their next major DCEU release, with Shazam! set to hit theaters on April 5th, 2019.
