AQUAMAN - a film by James Wan

[Immortal Weapon]

DC needs to go back to Man of Steel type of films.

The type of film that's proven to not be successful for them?

[stargazer01]

I was watching a commentary on one of the Chris Reeve Superman movies. Tom Mankiewicz, who was the story editor on the first two and who, except for Writer's Guild technical reasons, would have gotten a writing credit, was talking about how he was in a discussion at Warners in the 1980s when they were planning a Batman movie. All the executives kept going on about how you need to make it light, funny and optimistic. Why? Because of the success of the Superman movies. Mankiewicz basically said: No! No! That worked for Superman because he's Superman. That's who the character is. You don't want to do that with Batman nowadays. You want to make it as dark and gritty as you can possibly get away with. To some degree, they listened or they just happened to get a director named Tim Burton and gave him the reins to deliver a great vision for it's time.

Fast forward to more recently. The Dark Knight trilogy was fantastically successful and you've got executives making the same mistake because they only know that something was successful without having the slightest creative clue as to why it worked. So they say: Hey Batman was a great success so let's do Superman the same way. They needed a Mankiewicz there saying: No! No! That only worked because it was Batman. That's not Superman. Alas there was n o Tom Mankiewicz there to tell them they were clueless.

Exactly! Those execs are still clueless about these DC characters. If it wasn't for Nolan, Jenkins, Wan and Donner, we'd probably have all terrible DC movies. I hope Superman soon finds his new Donner/Mankiewicz because he really needs and deserves it.

I don't think Man of Steel is bad, I love it, but it could have been better and more successful with some little changes. BvS is not terrible, IMO, it's just... very misguided.

[Osiris-Rex]

Exactly! Those execs are still clueless about these DC characters. If it wasn't for Nolan, Jenkins, Wan and Donner, we'd probably have all terrible DC movies. I hope Superman soon finds his new Donner/Mankiewicz because he really needs and deserves it.

I liked what Tim Burton did with Batman. Probably more than I liked Nolan's films. I think Nicholson and Pfeiffer were better Jokers and Catwomans than Ledger and Hathaway.

[Powerboy]

Exactly! Those execs are still clueless about these DC characters. If it wasn't for Nolan, Jenkins, Wan and Donner, we'd probably have all terrible DC movies. I hope Superman soon finds his new Donner/Mankiewicz because he really needs and deserves it.

I don't think Man of Steel is bad, I love it, but it could have been better and more successful with some little changes. BvS is not terrible, IMO, it's just... very misguided.

I think so too. It wasn't necessary to throw out MoS. A few adjustments here and there would have been all it needed. Even Batman vs. Superman, though I detest the whole premise, could have been salvaged.

[Powerboy]

I liked what Tim Burton did with Batman. Probably more than I liked Nolan's films. I think Nicholson and Pfeiffer were better Jokers and Catwomans than Ledger and Hathaway.

I think Ledger was the opposite of Romero while Nicholson captured both the dark comedy and psychopath qualities. I like Hathaway but was she really even playing Catwoman? Selina Kyle yes. In the movie proper, she was not once referred to as Catwoman and rightfully so since nothing about the portrayal seemed like Catwoman. She was basically just a good thief who happened to be named Selina Kyle.

[choptop]

The type of film that's proven to not be successful for them?

It was successful it did over 600 mil the problem was they over spent on it like many other DC movies or kinda like marvel did with AaW.

[Jeramas]

Everyone needs to chill and wait for the Joker in October. DC has many flavours. So what if Aquaman is fun and goofy. The Joker won't be.

[choptop]

Gotta admit I'm glad to see "Mary Poppins Returns" also doing well. It deserves to.

It's not doing that great actually it's probably only made a couple mil profit....

[Surf]

I liked what Tim Burton did with Batman. Probably more than I liked Nolan's films. I think Nicholson and Pfeiffer were better Jokers and Catwomans than Ledger and Hathaway.

Interesting. I'm not quite there but I'm closer to this slant on some levels than not.

[Immortal Weapon]

It was successful it did over 600 mil the problem was they over spent on it like many other DC movies or kinda like marvel did with AaW.

WB wasn't happy with the film's performance.

[Midvillian1322]

Exactly! Those execs are still clueless about these DC characters. If it wasn't for Nolan, Jenkins, Wan and Donner, we'd probably have all terrible DC movies. I hope Superman soon finds his new Donner/Mankiewicz because he really needs and deserves it.

I don't think Man of Steel is bad, I love it, but it could have been better and more successful with some little changes. BvS is not terrible, IMO, it's just... very misguided.

MoS only saving grace for me was Jor-El and Zod. They were in a movie much better then the rest of its parts.

[Midvillian1322]

Everyone needs to chill and wait for the Joker in October. DC has many flavours. So what if Aquaman is fun and goofy. The Joker won't be.

Probaly wont be but the guy who did the Hangover is doing it so. It's not gonna be atleast part comedy. But that can work really nice. Plus the first Hangover is imo one of the best Comedys of all time. The sequels put a little stank on it but people forget how perfect the first one was and launches Cooper and Galafanankis into stardom. I'm excited for Joker. Also a Joker POV movie should be part comedy anyway. The character finds the humor in everything.

[Jim Kelly]

Well, Peter Farrelly--of the Farrelly brothers--directed GREEN BOOK. And, while it might have won the Golden Globe for Best Musical or Comedy and it has some comical and musical moments, I definitely thought it was a drama--and quite a good movie (as if my opinion counts for anything). So I think it's quite possible for directors to switch from humour to drama.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

OK, we now have some more box office results for Aquaman. Now, you may not have heard this, but Aquaman has surpassed a billion dollars at the global box office.

Other news:
- We have China Actuals as of Jan 13: It stands at $293,094,544. Aquaman will undoubtedly cross the $300 million mark in China and will probably do it before Friday. It appears that Venom has ended its 2-month exhibition window as of last weekend Jan 6, so Venom's China total ends at $272,243,405.

- The biggest superhero movie in China was Avengers: Infinity War, which ended at $359,543,153. I don't know if Aquaman has another $60 million of juice left in the China box office, but just the fact that Aquaman and Avengers can be mentioned in the same breath in that country is pretty amazing.

- Aquaman has surpassed the unadjusted domestic gross of the first DCEU movie, Man of Steel. MOS ended its domestic run with $291,045,518 after 98 days & Aquaman has $291,638,247 after 26 days (Tues, Jan 15). When adjusted to today's average ticket price, MOS's domestic rises to $311,261,700. Aquaman should have no trouble topping this as well. I'm thinking, given that Aquaman should also remain in theaters for 98 days, that over the next 70+ days, it should have no trouble exceeding the domestic takes of both Suicide Squad ($325mm) and Batman v Superman ($330mm). Aquaman would need $338 million to top their adjusted domestic hauls.

- I can't see Aquaman getting any higher than $350 domestic, so Wonder Woman's record of about $420 million domestic should remain comfortably intact.

[Powerboy]

It's [Mary Poppins Returns] not doing that great actually it's probably only made a couple mil profit....

That's unfortunate. It's so true to the original and such a good movie, not the kind of movie we usually talk about much here or go crazy over but a very good movie in my opinion.