Before it came out, there was some question over whether Aquaman would even be a hit. It hailed from the troubled DCEU and, even if it made money, few expected it would gross anywhere near DC’s prize horses: the second and third in Christopher Nolan’s beloved Batman trilogy. And then Aquaman quickly became a box office behemoth, especially internationally. Then it became the highest DCEU film. Now it’s the highest DC film period.
At the box office this weekend, Aquaman sailed past The Dark Knight Rises, previously the highest grossing movie in the comic wing’s catalogue. As noted by Deadline, the DCEU solo venture found its total global cume rising to $1.09 billion, just enough to pass TDKR’s $1.08 billion.
Of course, that’s not adjusted for inflation. TDKR came out in 2012, meaning it’s total only seven years later would be about $119 billion. Then again, Aquaman is still going strong; the Jason Momoa-starrer is still the number three movie in America in its sixth week of release.
Worth noting again is that a large chunk of its worldwide grosses come from outside of America. As per Box Office Mojo, only 29% of its overall haul is stateside — specifically $316 million — meaning a whopping 71% of the money is coming from elsewhere.
The new cume makes Aquaman currently the seventh highest grossing comic book movie ever, after all three Avengers entries, Black Panther, Iron Man Three, and Captain America: Civil War. Not bad for an eternally underappreciated underdog — a character semi-famously dissed in this classic SNL sketch as someone whose only real power is that he can swim fast.
(Via Deadline)