Ladies and gentlemen, we’re proud to report that Aquaman is now the highest grossing DC movie worldwide. Yes, we’re talking about the character who was once the butt of many jokes. “An orange-shirted punchline” as director James Wan put it. Well, who’s laughing now?
Aquaman has been running strong in cinemas for six weekends now and has as of yesterday grossed over $US 1.09 billion at the global box office, overtaking the previously highest grossing DC movie, The Dark Knight Rises ($US 1.08 billion, sans inflation). Naturally, that also makes it the highest grossing film in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) and the only film in the DCEU thus far to gross the $US 1 billion dollar mark. Out of the 37 films that are currently in the $US billion dollar club, only three are DC comics adaptations. The other being the second instalment in Nolan’s trilogy, The Dark Knight ($US 1 billion). Batman V Superman and Wonder Woman raked in more than $US 800 million each.
Things are slightly different if we look at the US box office alone. For starters, Aquaman is only the 6th highest DC movie in the US ($US 316 million). Nolan’s The Dark Knight tops the charts with $US 533 million, followed by The Dark Knight Rises ($US 448 million), Wonder Woman ($US 413 million), Batman V Superman ($US 330 million) and Suicide Squad ($US 325 million). This also puts Aquaman in 4th place as far as the DCEU is concerned, ranking higher than Man of Steel and Justice League, both of which made less than $US 300 million.
WORLDWIDE vs US ONLY
And if you’re wondering how these numbers compare to the Marvel brand, well they’re expectedly trailing. Six movies based on Marvel comics have raked in more than $US 1 billion dollars, one of which — Avengers: Infinity War — even crossed the prestigious $US 2 billion dollar line. What’s interesting is, four out of six Marvel movies that have grossed more than US$ 1 billion are team up/crossover movies: Infinity War ($US 2.05 billion), The Avengers ($US 1.5 billion), Age of Ultron ($US 1.4 billion) and Captain America: Civil War ($US 1.2 billion). The top money makers at DC, however, have all been solo outings.
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