When the first film was released in 2018, it won 2.013 billion yuan at the box office in mainland China, and the global box office reached 1.148 billion US dollars (about 7.928 billion RMB). It was a DC "proud" work, and the Douban score once broke 8.
Aquaman 2 was officially released on January 12th, 2022, and the original crew returned in the sequel. The film is still directed by James Wan, who surprised audiences all over the world in the last film. Jason Moma and Amber Heard play arthur curry, the sea king, and Myra, the queen of the sea, respectively. The new main character is Queen Atlantis, the mother of Neptune played by Nicole Kidman.
Due to the epidemic situation in COVID-19, post-production and financial difficulties, the film was postponed several times, and the final file was set on December 25th, 2023.
However, the word of mouth came from the latest screening, which made some DC fans feel cold.
ViewerAnon, a film blogger, said that the film has held six screening sessions in the past six months, and the situation is not optimistic. "I have always heard people say that it is boring, not as good as the first one, and it may be one of the worst movies in DCEU."
ViewerAnon added that the poor performance of the sequel had nothing to do with Amber Heard’s role as Myra, because she didn’t play many parts in the second film, and said that James Wan had a "hard time" in filming this film, hoping that he could make some remedies before it was released.
Superhero movie watcher @BSL(Big Screen Leaks) also confirmed this statement, saying that Aquaman 2’s problems were known before, but we avoided talking about them. Now everyone knows about the screening. "I really hope that James Wan can solve them before December."
@BSL also said, "I heard that something that almost never happened in other screenings happened in the screening of this film, and they really need to solve this problem as soon as possible."
Jeff Sneider, an industry insider, revealed that he also learned that the response to the Aquaman 2 screening was "terrible".
"The Direct" said that it was reported on the external network that someone left early at the screening. This phenomenon is very strange, which means that the person who was invited to read the film in advance for comments left without waiting to communicate the shortcomings of the film with the film.
The US media also predicted that if Aquaman 2 really threw himself into the street when it was released at the end of the year, Jason Momoa’s road to Aquaman independent film might end here, and he might play other roles in DCEU later.
When "Aquaman" was released in December 2018, Douban once reached 8.2 points, but now it has dropped to 7.6. At that time, it broke the record of the next day’s increase of superhero movies in China, and was regarded as a work that was higher than expected, which made DC very satisfied.
With this film, Jason Momoa jumped from the supporting role "King Ma" in Game of Thrones to a Hollywood first-line star. James Wan has also gained wider recognition.
Because DC Comics and Marvel Comics are both called the two major comic publishing giants in the United States, DC Pictures under Warner and Marvel Pictures under Disney have always been in a competitive relationship. After Marvel Comics’s Panther 2 and Ant Man 3 failed in succession, Aquaman 2 was an important card in DC’s hand.
Now, there are still 10 months to go before the release, and the news that the word-of-mouth of the screening is poor has come out in Aquaman 2, which is undoubtedly a blow to DC, which has not yet emerged from the shadow of Black Adam.
It’s also bad news for Warner. Variety, an American entertainment media, previously revealed that Aquaman 2’s budget reached 205 million US dollars (about 1.408 billion RMB), making it the fifth most expensive film in DC.
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