Warner Bros. wants very badly to a have a series of superhero movies on par with Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, but so far, it’s not working out. With the notable exception of Wonder Woman, its DC Extended Universe movies have underperformed commercially and critically, with 2017’s Justice League being the most middling to date. (I mean, it still made a lot of money, but at this level, even that may not be good enough to justify further investment.)
But Warner Bros. has a new movie on the horizon it hopes will reverse this trend: Aquaman, an origin story about the King of the Seas starring charismatic Game of Thrones veteran Jason Momoa in the lead role. Advance word of mouth has been pretty good, and now Deadline reports that the movie raked in an estimated $24.6 million on its opening day in the Chinese market. That’s the biggest opening day ever for a WB movie in that region, and the best December opening day ever. Projections show it could take in over $80 million in its opening weekend.
It’s unusual for a Hollywood movie to debut in China before it opens in the U.S., but it does happen. (And industry leaders say that China’s film market will surpass the United States’ pretty soon, so expect it to happen more often.) Warner Bros. went hard on marketing Aquaman in China, with Momoa, star Amber Heard and director James Wan all making visits. It looks like it paid off.
Of course, there’s lot of marketing happening for Westerners, too. Momoa dropped by The Tonight Show to chuck tridents with Jimmy Fallon just the other day…
…and he’s hosting Saturday Night Live tomorrow:
Aquaman is starting to look more like a Wonder Woman-style hit as opposed to a Justice League style gasping-fish-on-the-sidewalk. It opens in a whole lot of other markets soon and will drop onto U.S. screens December 21. Best of luck to it.
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