In the olden days, fans had to wait six months — even a year! — for a theatrical release to hit home video. These days it’s somewhere between zero days and a few months. After that one year when they dumped an entire year’s worth of big movies on their streamer, Warner Bros. Discovery, as run by hissable cartoon villain David Zaslav, has gone back to a slightly more traditional model, wherein their new films get theatrical releases then wind up on their streamer, the confusingly called Max, somewhere between 67 and 90 days later.
So when are subscribers going to get their mitts on Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom?
The answer? Somewhere between 67 and 90 days after its release date, namely December 22.
The earliest the film could arrive (should WBD stick by their current game plan) is February 27. That’s how long it took DCEU titles like Shazam! Fury of the Gods and The Flash to arrive. Or it could be closer to April, if it follows the 90-day window of Blue Beetle.
Right now Aquaman 2 is still in theaters, and it’s doing…okay. It actually had a smaller opening than The Flash, though the build-up for that was so high that it felt like more of a bomb when it performed mediocrely. As of this writing, some two weeks into its run, it’s still way behind the $100 million mark domestically, and about $300 million worldwide. By comparison, the first Aquaman hauled in over $1 billion overall. It’s yet another sign that the age of the comic book movie blockbuster may be on the outs.
Anyway, expect Aquaman 2 to be on Max in just shy of two months. Or maybe longer.
