Jason Momoa Says “This Might Be the Last Time” He’s Playing Aquaman, as Sequel Sinks with $40 Million Debut

[Tsing]

Jason Momoa has been partially hopeful about returning as Aquaman in Warner Bros.' new DC Universe, but that might not be happening, as his new sequel, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, has only made $28 million over the weekend and an estimated $40 million through the four-day holiday weekend following its release on December 22, per coverage from Variety.

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[LeRoy_Blanchard]

I haven't seen it yet and don't plan to go to the theaters to watch it. I am sure others have the same thought. Theaters just aren't worth it anymore. They cost way too much money and time. Then, when you do take the time and pay the money some a$$hole in the theater won't STFU during the show.

Watching at home is a LOT better than it once was. With high definition TVs in homes the theater experience just isn't needed anymore.

Granted I know some movies people will go to watch at theaters because it's something they really want to see; but sadly the DC Universe just isn't what it could be.

 

[Uvilla]

Theaters should be cheaper, though, supposedly they are 'the same' adjusted for inflation, yet, for some reason going is more of ' a decision' for me than before.
Of couse like many ( I think) im making the most money in my life and I am the brokest I've been in roughly 15 years.
I think it because EVERYTHING gone up relentlessly. Inflation, sure, used to be something would go up other things would calm down a bit, right now not the best example, I know, but I mean like switching chicken to pork or even like ' shopping for car insurance' would yield significant savings, not so anymore, at all in my experience.

 

[Brent_Justice]

Also people now know James Gunn is coming in and re-booting the entire franchise with new stories, so the current stuff just isn't relevant anymore in people's eyes, they know that it isn't going anywhere, and so they've also lost interest. It's a compounded issue. It's like the Marvel thing, people are just kinda getting tired of it all.

 

[Uvilla]

Also people now know James Gunn is coming in and re-booting the entire franchise with new stories, so the current stuff just isn't relevant anymore in people's eyes, they know that it isn't going anywhere, and so they've also lost interest. It's a compounded issue. It's like the Marvel thing, people are just kinda getting tired of it all.

Im not sure too many know this? Honestly I didn't know this movie existed, like, at all.

 

[Grimlakin]

Lets add in that the female lead is the same woman who pout Johnny Depp through the ringer. (I'll be honest he isn't a great guy either.) A movie that to go see it here in DFW on opening weekend was almost 50 bucks just for two tickets. Not including snacks or anything at the theater that are so crazy it's 10 bucks for a large POPCORN.

Yea screw them. Inflation can kiss my ***. I'll keep my 'free' max subscription through my phone carrier and just watch it on my big screen at home.

My Wife WANTED to go see this movie and I told her great order tickets. She went to look then asked.. "how long before it's on streaming?" I said.. 45 days to a couple months probably. So we wait for streaming.

I'm tempted to get one of those theater passes... if it's appreciably cheaper than getting tickets at the theater.

 

[Riccochet]

If I ever go to the movies it's on a weekday matinee for like $7 a ticket. Cheaper, less crowded. Take our own snacks and just buy drinks. Otherwise you're spending $60-80 on everything. Nope.

 

[DrezKill]

Watching at home is a LOT better than it once was. With high definition TVs in homes the theater experience just isn't needed anymore.

Ever since the 2000s when HDTVs just absolutely blew away theater projectors in terms of image quality and colors. OLED only widened that gap. Plus we got some big-@ss screens today. And then of course it is very easy and relatively cheap to get a good sound system that can easily match a theater's sound system. And there is no substitute for BD quality.

Then, when you do take the time and pay the money some a$$hole in the theater won't STFU during the show.

Yupz. Never could stand that sh1t. Talking to other people, talking on their phones, or just talking to no one in particular. Not to mention at home you can pause the movie, go to the bathroom, rewind if necessary, supply your own food and drink, etc. Just cheaper, more comfortable, and more convenient to watch at home.

If I ever go to the movies it's on a weekday matinee for like $7 a ticket.

Back in the days when I did actually go see movies at movie theaters, I would always go on a weekday morning. No weekends, and no evenings or nights. If I had to take off of work or skip class, so be it. And even then, there was still no guarantee that there wouldn't be talkative @ssholes in the theater. Also paying more than about $6 for a ticket was more than I could tolerate. When ticket prices started going past $8 I was like "well f*ck this nonsense then".

Also people now know James Gunn is coming in and re-booting the entire franchise with new stories, so the current stuff just isn't relevant anymore in people's eyes, they know that it isn't going anywhere, and so they've also lost interest.

Yeah. I mean DCEU was already suffering greatly compared to MCU during the height of MCU, and was seen as a joke. Now that everything is gonna be wiped out and started over fresh, people especially don't care about the existing DCEU sh1t. And then on top of that is how the masses are just plain getting tired of this kind of stuff (comic-based movies) in general. If MCU is suffering from that, DCEU has absolutely no hope whatsoever. But if any man has the ability to turn stuff around, it would be James Gunn. Have you seen the 2nd Suicide Squad movie? That's a miracle I never expected to happen. I don't believe he can save the entire DCEU like that though. Even his MCU work was starting to suffer a bit before he took the DCEU job.

My Wife WANTED to go see this movie and I told her great order tickets. She went to look then asked.. "how long before it's on streaming?" I said.. 45 days to a couple months probably. So we wait for streaming.

I don't even do that sh1t. Streaming quality is @ss too. If I want to see a movie, I wait for BD rips.

 

[Burticus]

I sort of watched the 1st one on a plane a while back. No desire to see this one. Not that I dislike Momoa per se, just sick of superhero / comic book stuff.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

When ticket prices started going past $8 I was like

Pretty much the same. I think we went to one or two more films once it got past the $8 mark, and I was done. Even if it was just two of us I could still buy the 4K/BD for a few dollars more and be done with it.

I don't even do that sh1t. Streaming quality is

I will give credit to Max. Its 1080p streams are pretty impressive. 4K is another story though but still better than some others. I feel Disney has a moving slider for its bitrates, Amazon is still the worst, Netflix, beyond the pixel count, looks about the same as a Max's 1080p, and while I like Paramount's 4K streams I have to either watch it on the Z9D or via a Shield due to them getting in a pissing contest wit LG years ago. Although their 1080p streams a pretty good too.

So I read an article on some movie site over the weekend while this movie was tanking but even before then, it was pretty obvious it would take a miracle, which never happened, to save it. The short end of it, and very similar to The Marvels, is that it just took far too long to get either movie out. This movie was the better part of 5 years and given that audiences were already becoming far more selective about what comic projects they were still interested in combined with this being a franchise that many folks were curious about at best, it was almost doomed from the start. Both movies needed to be out within 2 years to have had any hope of real ticket sales.

I can only imagine what Marvel is going through in trying to figure out what to do with its bazillion projects that nobody wants to see and honestly while I like most of what Gunn has done with Suicide Squad and GOTG, I really doubt he's going to be able to revive DC. I don't feel that comic movies are totally dead but the days of constant releases bringing in steady ticket sales are done. They each need to, at most, keep it to one or two a year and be far more selective about the story/characters that are left to explore. Honestly, I think it should be every other year but that's just me. From Doom to X-Men, Marvel has some potential but audiences are unlikely to want to see anything else rebooted right now. DC, well, nobody knows how to keep throwing stuff at the wall for rebooting like they do so it's just a matter of time since it's their go-to strategy, I mean, how many Batman's and Superman's are there?

Just a little reference as I do like to check Box Office Mojo frequently for its global ticket sales since both our domestic sales, and media often paint a distorted picture of what is going on in the industry while worldwide sales really do show a bigger picture of it. That being said there were some still very successful comic book franchises in 2023. Marvel still had 3 titles in the top 10. I listed the top 50 but honestly after the top 20 the numbers are pretty bad no matter how you look at it.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

oh, @DrezKill, if you haven't seen Peacemaker yet then you've got to check it out. Gunn did an awesome job there and to me, it just shows that he'll be better off working with different characters and material than doing the reboots.

 

[DrezKill]

oh, @DrezKill, if you haven't seen Peacemaker yet then you've got to check it out. Gunn did an awesome job there and to me, it just shows that he'll be better off working with different characters and material than doing the reboots.

I did in fact see Peacemaker some time ago, but thanks for the heads up anyways!

 

[LeRoy_Blanchard]

All that picture and chart tells me is one thing.

Comic book based movies are going to be replaced by Video Game based movies.

Whether or not they'll be successful is anyone's guess, but the market will be flooded with them soon.

 

[Grimlakin]

All that picture and chart tells me is one thing.

Comic book based movies are going to be replaced by Video Game based movies.

Whether or not they'll be successful is anyone's guess, but the market will be flooded with them soon.

Well if they base it on the success and rotten tomato metric for the games we'll see more interesting stories. Mass Effect as a movie could be awesome. Baulders Gate 3 as a movie could be... well that would be hard. But maybe awesome.

Jedi Survivor as a movie.. maybe... that's a tuff one.

Hogwarts Legacy as a movie..

****... just how many games have I enjoyed based on licensed IP this year... uhhh original stuff... Starfield? Uhhh outer Worlds. uhhh... yep. Diablo and World of Warcraft... of course WOW has been done... uhhh.. City of Heroes but that's just another hero movie..

there are a TON of good stories that are original and cool that would be interesting as a movie... just tuff to do.

 

[Brian_B]

There are a lot of things that ~could~ be good movies.

Even in the superhero genre, as tired as I am of it, I still acknowledge there are plenty of good stories out there to be told. And an infinite number of ideas that haven't been thought of yet that could be great.

But it takes a good write/director/producer, and a publisher/distributor/investors willing to give them latitude to let those stories get told

 

[Brian_B]

Back to the OP ---

I haven't even heard of half of these movies. I am so out of touch.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

All that picture and chart tells me is one thing.

Comic book based movies are going to be replaced by Video Game based movies.

Whether or not they'll be successful is anyone's guess, but the market will be flooded with them soon.

Sadly I have to agree with this. We've already heard of a ton of projects in the works, and mostly are coming from Sony and Nintendo-related IP.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

Back to the OP ---

I haven't even heard of half of these movies. I am so out of touch.

I wouldn't feel bad about it at all. If I didn't have an obsession with checking magazines and websites for movie news going back to childhood I probably would only be with about a half dozen at most on that list. One thing that is obvious, despite how much the industry and world has changed, is that audiences still prefer flash and glamour for their money. Drama and historical pieces are still at a low regardless of how much praise they get from award ceremonies and paid reviewers. Oppenheimer was an unusual success and I'm happy for it but otherwise, most other such non-fiction content didn't fare as well.

Back to topic though, again I have to emphasize that five years was far too long to wait to get this out. I swear that it seems like Zaslav tried to sabotage some of these projects with delayed releases. From COVID to strikes and burnout, things were bad enough but waiting until the iron was cold and forgotten about didn't help anything. There's a rumor that Momoa, like others from the DCEU, could return in other roles under Gunn but I kind of hope they don't. I usually love tribute cameos but somehow it would feel like a slap in the face.

 

[Dan_D]

Jason Momoa has been partially hopeful about returning as Aquaman in Warner Bros.' new DC Universe, but that might not be happening, as his new sequel, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, has only made $28 million over the weekend and an estimated $40 million through the four-day holiday weekend following its release on December 22, per coverage from Variety.

See full article...

That's a pretty rough start for one of the biggest weekends of the year for movie releases. Honestly, I think there are a number of things working against it. DCEU films have been mostly misses rather than hits. Plus, I think there is something to be said for genre fatigue. I don't think we are at a point where a comic book based film won't succeed no matter how good it is, but I do think that movies based on the less popular characters are at a tremendous disadvantage. Of the usual cast of characters that found the Justice League, Aquaman is probably the least popular or close to it.

From what I've been reading about the film, it plays things pretty safe. It's a by the numbers super hero movie that doesn't dare to offend anyone on either side of the political spectrum and it takes no chances with its stories or characters. Not to mention Amber Heard is a seriously unpopular actress with people having demanding she be fired from the film and the part recast. It wouldn't shock me at all if some people simply aren't seeing the movie because she's still in it. Though evidently her screen time was cut seriously short and there were reshoots done to make that happen.

 

[Grimlakin]

lol and I kind of agree. Staple that to a movie costing 20 bucks a seat where I am... and it's a no go.

If they had real confidence in it they would have done a simultaneous release like they did Dune. I saw that movie online and immediately went the very next day and watched it in the theater. But that's probably a 1 x every 5 year sort of thing I suppose.