Things could still go wrong for Aquaman, but so far, James Wan’s film is shaping up to be every bit the success that the DCEU needs right now, and as the film moves into its domestic opening weekend, the promising signs continue with the movie’s Thursday preview figures.
Deadline reported last night that Arthur Curry’s solo debut was on track to gross somewhere between $8 million to $10 million in previews. With the screenings beginning at 5pm, the feature was scheduled to capitalize on 15% of K-12 schools being off for the holidays yesterday, as well as 78% of colleges being on break.
Though these Thursday figures fall below the equivalent numbers for Wonder Woman and Justice League – which took in $11 million and $13 million, respectively – it’s still a pretty impressive start to what’s looking to be a strong few days for Wan’s underwater actioner. According to recent projections, Aquaman is expected to take in between $65 million and $70 million from Friday to Sunday, before grossing a total of at least $120 million over the full five-day holiday weekend, outdoing the commercially lackluster but bigger-budgeted Justice League’s five-day haul of $111.9 million.
But while those numbers remain forecasts for the time being, the film has already done very well for itself overseas, getting its gross total past the $260 million mark by the end of its second weekend after breaking franchise and studio records in the all-important China market. At this rate, the odds are looking pretty good that Aquaman will be landing the sequel that Warner Bros. is already discussing, but with the film hitting North American theaters today, we should know soon enough if Arthur still has a future in the franchise.
