Though the DCEU ended last year on a limp note with the commercially lackluster Justice League, great things are currently expected for the cinematic universe’s sole 2018 offering, with Fandango reporting that James Wan’s Aquaman has already surpassed Wonder Woman in early ticket sales.
Though Fandango’s figures only account for a certain fraction of the total weekend gross, pre-sales often make up a pretty large proportion of a movie’s early haul, making this new report just one more very encouraging sign of things to come later this week. According to the latest word from Deadline, Aquaman is projected to take in between $65 million and $70 million from Friday to Sunday, before grossing a total of $120-plus million over the full five-day holiday weekend.
What’s more, Arthur Curry’s solo debut has already had phenomenal success overseas, with the movie passing the $260 million mark by the end of its second weekend. Things have been going especially well for Aquaman in the all-important China market as well, where the film exceeded the regional box office total of Justice League in a mere four days.
All in all, it’s looking pretty likely that Wan’s flick will be getting the sequel that Warner Bros. so desires, whether the director himself is back on board or not, and it probably won’t be the only movie that does very well this weekend, either. Fandango also reports that Bumblebee has outpaced 2017’s Transformers: The Last Knight in pre-sales, so that’s two blockbuster franchises that look to be making a commercial comeback this month.
Nonetheless, the biggest earner in this final stretch of the year will almost certainly be Aquaman, and you can judge for yourself whether it deserves its success when the film hits theaters on December 21st.
