The DCEU might’ve died a watery death with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, expiring just 10 years into its existence whereas the 15-year-old MCU shows no signs of stopping, but the final entry in the franchise has just gained a major win over Marvel Studios’ The Marvels.
Over its second weekend in theaters, the Jason Momoa sequel managed to easily surf past the $200 million mark at the global box office. Meanwhile, The Marvels — which went down in history as the lowest-grossing MCU movie of all time last November — brought home a mere $199 million during its entire theatrical run across a four-week period. In other words, The Lost Kingdom just earned 100% of The Marvels‘ gross at 2x the speed.
It didn’t always look like it was going to end this way. Aquaman 2 initially opened to a weaker performance with its Thursday night previews than The Marvels, which indicated the Brie Larson bomb might escape one more embarrassment. Unfortunately, while the DC film didn’t have a mega-successful opening, it enjoyed a drop-off into its second weekend of just 29%. That gives it the second biggest holdover in earnings of any DCEU movie. The number one slot, interestingly, belongs to 2018’s Aquaman.
The Marvels, on the other hand, hemorrhaged ticket sales week by week. While both origins films crossed the $1 billion mark, then, Aquaman possibly just has that bit more pop culture popularity than Captain Marvel. Or else the Christmas season, which lacked a huge hitter like Avatar 2 or Spider-Man: No Way Home, gave it a bit of extra boost. Whatever the reason, the inescapable truth is that the DCEU’s demise hasn’t been as embarrassing as it could’ve been while Marvel’s survival in its current state is looking more and more sketchy.
The good news is that Marvel is destined to win the battle of 2024 over DC, whatever happens. Ahead of James Gunn’s shiny new DCU kicking off with Superman: Legacy in summer 2025, DC is taking a year off, while Marvel has just one movie on its slate — this May’s Deadpool 3. Who will win the war long-term, though, remains to be seen.