Aquaman 2 Shipwrecks with Thursday Box Office

"Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" is off to a slow start at the holiday box office, with only $4.5 million from previews on Thursday. That's a lot less than the $9 million the first "Aquaman" made on Thursday and even less than the $9.7 million "The Flash" made earlier this year on its way to a poor $55 million opening weekend.

It looks like "Aquaman 2," the last movie in the current DC world before James Gunn and Peter Safran's reboot, will open between $35 and $40 million. In 2018, the first weekend of "Aquaman" brought in $67 million, and by Christmas Day two days later, it had made $100 million in domestic sales.

"Shazam: Fury of the Gods," "The Flash," and "Blue Beetle," the first three DC movies that came out this year, all failed to make more than $275 million worldwide. And with $526 million, they made less than 30% of the $772 million that "The Batman" made for the company by itself in 2022.