Well, the numbers are now in and we imagine the folks at Warner Bros. are probably sweating pretty hard. Though it didn’t bomb – far from it, in fact – Justice League stormed into theaters this weekend and failed to make much of an impact at the box office. Or at least, nowhere near as much of an impact as the studio had no doubt hoped it would make.
The final numbers won’t be here until Monday morning, but analysts are estimating that the team-up pic pulled in a decent but not terribly impressive $96 million on home turf (with $185 million internationally), putting it far below the expected $110 million mark that it had been pegged at prior to release. Undoubtedly, the so-so reviews and storm that hovered over it during production led to this underwhelming opening, and it’s uncertain now which direction the DCEU will head in.
To put things into perspective, Batman V Superman scored $166 million during its opening weekend, while Suicide Squad earned $133.7 million. Man of Steel, meanwhile, took home $128.9 million and Wonder Woman did $103.3 million. So, that puts Justice League right at the bottom of the list when it comes to DCEU debuts and given that it’s been the most important film for the franchise thus far, that’s certainly not a good sign. Not to mention that its numbers don’t even come close to Thor: Ragnarok‘s thunderous $122.7 million opening.
With $300 million spent on the production alone, Warner Bros. still has a long ways to go before they recoup their costs. Analysts predict a finish at $265 million domestically and $700 million worldwide, though, meaning that the studio will still turn a profit, but it certainly won’t be the kind they were hoping for.
Again, what this means for the DCEU moving forward is hard to say right now, and we likely won’t get anything concrete from WB until Justice League is done its theatrical run. If we had to guess, though, there are going to be some major changes coming down the pipeline and we’d be surprised at this point if they still decide to push ahead with a sequel.