Aquaman's Opening Weekend Box Office Compared to Other DCEU Movies

The King of the Seven Seas is also now the king of the box office. Aquaman, the latest entry in the shared DC Movie universe, opened in North American theaters with $67.4 million ($72.7 million total including Thursday night previews). Internationally, the James Wan-directed film has amassed $415.5 million in the last few weeks since opening in China.


Still, Aquaman had the lowest opening weekend of any DC universe entry yet. The character, who had largely been treated as a pop culture punchline, had a lot to prove in this solo outing. The film reportedly carried a production budget between $160-200 million (not including marketing costs, which could be nearly as much), so Aquaman will still need to perform strongly in the weeks ahead if it's going to be profitable.

But the waters ahead for Aquaman don't appear nearly as rough as they did for other entries in the DC movieverse that opened bigger but weathered poorer reviews, bad word of mouth, and steep declines in successive weekends. With an A- CinemaScore from audience exit polling and a "fresh" critical score at Rotten Tomatoes, Aquaman appears poised to stay strong at the box office in the coming weeks.

Check out the list below of opening weekend box office figures for every entry in the shared DC movie universe (not adjusted for inflation, via Box Office Mojo):

1. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

• Opening Weekend: $166,007,347
• Total Domestic: $330,360,194
• Total Worldwide: $873,634,919

2. Suicide Squad (2016)

• Opening Weekend: $133,682,248
• Total Domestic: $325,100,054
• Total Worldwide: $746,846,894

3. Man of Steel (2013)

• Opening Weekend: $116,619,362
• Total Domestic: $291,045,518
• Total Worldwide: $668,045,518

4. Wonder Woman (2017)

• Opening Weekend: $103,251,471
• Total Domestic: $412,563,408
• Total Worldwide: $821,847,012

5. Justice League (2017)

• Opening Weekend: $93,842,239
• Total Domestic: $229,024,295
• Total Worldwide: $657,924,295

6. Aquaman (2018)

• Opening Weekend: $67,400,000
• Total Domestic: $72,700,000 (and counting)
• Total Worldwide: $488,200,000 (and counting)