AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM: It Sounds Like Warner Bros. Has Already Given Up On The DCEU Sequel

AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM: It Sounds Like Warner Bros. Has Already Given Up On The DCEU Sequel

Despite recent reshoots supposedly addressing many of the sequel's issues, a new rumour suggests Warner Bros. Discovery has all but given up on Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom ahead of its December release.

By JoshWilding - Sep 08, 2023 01:09 PM EST

Considering the fact 2018's Aquaman made over $1.1 billion at the worldwide box office, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom should be a guaranteed hit. Instead, the long-delayed movie has been besieged by negative headlines over the past year or so. 

Rumour has it early test screenings were a disaster, while it was later reported that the sequel has undergone at least three rounds of reshoots. 

Warner Bros. executives reportedly got hands-on with the Aquaman follow-up at one point, though the latest round of additional photography is thought to have addressed at least some of the movie's issues. Are we looking at a disaster as big as The Flash? Right now, it certainly feels that way. 

With the movie just over three months away from splashing down into theaters, we've yet to see a single trailer or poster. In fact, one reliable social media scooper claims Warner Bros. Discovery "aren’t putting a marketing budget behind it at all" because "they know it’s bad [and] they know it’ll lose money."

Anyone hoping the DCEU would end on a high with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will be disappointed by this news, though it tracks after what's proven to be an awful 12 months for the franchise. Bouncing back from this won't be easy, even with James Gunn calling the shots at the newly formed DC Studios. 

For what it's worth, we've heard that promotion will kick off in early October with product reveals and a trailer later debuting at New York Comic-Con. To say it could be too little too late by then feels like an understatement, unfortunately. 

It seems the current plan is to push the movie as hard as possible over a two-month period, perhaps to save money or in an effort to increase excitement as close to its arrival in theaters as possible. We'd bet on the former.

In Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, when an ancient power is unleashed, Aquaman must forge an uneasy alliance with an unlikely ally to protect Atlantis, and the world, from irreversible devastation.

The movie stars Jason Momoa (Aquaman), Nicole Kidman (Atlanna), Patrick Wilson (Orm), Amber Heard (Mera), Yahya Adbdul-Mateen II (Black Manta), and Dolph Lundgren (King Nereus), along with newcomers in the form of Pilou Asbæk, Vincent Regan, and Indya Moore.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom arrives in theaters on December 20.

AQUAMAN & THE LOST KINGDOM Concept Art Spotlights Alternate Mera Costume Designs
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massdeath
massdeath - 9/8/2023, 1:33 PM
If DC were a dog it would have been put down by now.
FireandBlood
FireandBlood - 9/8/2023, 1:36 PM
@massdeath - Facts
DarthOmega
DarthOmega - 9/8/2023, 2:01 PM
@massdeath - Yeah, I was hoping they could get it together because I want to see all Comic book movies win. But it doesn't seem like they even give a shit anymore so why should I. Damn shame.
mastakilla39
mastakilla39 - 9/8/2023, 4:16 PM
@massdeath - More like they will just by new dogs and act like the old one doesn't exist.
UncleHarm1
UncleHarm1 - 9/8/2023, 5:13 PM
@massdeath - My dog hasn't made a single good movie... time to Old Yeller him I guess
kingruggid
kingruggid - 9/8/2023, 7:57 PM
@massdeath - preach
dragon316
dragon316 - 9/8/2023, 9:41 PM
@massdeath - what’s reason for marvel ?
BobGarlen
BobGarlen - 9/8/2023, 1:33 PM
Honestly if the expectation is that it will lose money they can save face by putting it to max. Keep the taste of any bad DC in theaters until something deserving comes up.
mountainman
mountainman - 9/8/2023, 1:40 PM
@BobGarlen - Yeah let’s say it does $200 million WW, what do they make about 50% of that?

So possibly making $100 million back from the budget vs avoiding all the negative press from it. Seems like a good idea.
ShimmyShimmyYA
ShimmyShimmyYA - 9/8/2023, 2:08 PM
@BobGarlen - probably don’t wanna risk losing the screens
Vigor
Vigor - 9/8/2023, 1:34 PM
I've never seen movie studios hold back marketing because they themselves think a movie is "bad". They also usually blame external forces for why some movies fail instead of looking intrinsically.
StSteven
StSteven - 9/8/2023, 4:40 PM
@Vigor - You mean like, oh I don't know, WBD just the other day blaming their string of recent underperformances on the strikes? That kind of blaming external forces? Or like, The Force?

WBD's next excuse: "We believe that after looking at the data, our recent DC movies simply didn't have enough midichlorians to reach the Box Office performance that we were aiming for."
Vigor
Vigor - 9/8/2023, 7:38 PM
@StSteven - at this point I wouldn't put it past them!
StSteven
StSteven - 9/8/2023, 9:13 PM
@Vigor - So... that means that it's George Lucas who is responsible for all those underperforming DC movies recently! I knew it!! That jolly old fat man is too nice and too quiet and who owns LucasFilm? Huh?!? Disney!!!! Jesus Christ! It all falls into place now,
Forthas
Forthas - 9/8/2023, 1:35 PM
"Warner Bros. executives reportedly got hands-on"

The scariest words in cinema!
soupysales
soupysales - 9/8/2023, 4:39 PM
@Forthas - right?, lololol...and i'm still looking forward to seeing it
StSteven
StSteven - 9/8/2023, 4:47 PM
@Forthas - Damn it damn it damn it! You beat me to it by like 2 hours! Stupid job! Stupid kid that needed to be picked up from school! Stupid wife who walked to talk to me about our current in-progress stupid insurance claim! That's it! I'm quitting my job, putting the kids up for adoption, divorcing m wife, and selling my house. That way I won't miss another opportunity to post something like that in the future! I'll live in a tent in the woods and I'll be fine. As long as I have power. And an Internet connection. Okay, so maybe not in the woods but in an empty lot down the street next to someone who has an open WiFi account and an outdoor outlet. THEN I'll be fine.
Forthas
Forthas - 9/8/2023, 4:57 PM
@StSteven -



Its ok! Warner Brothers will provide you with an infinite number of opportunities in the not too distant future to make a statement. Just give it a few hours!
StSteven
StSteven - 9/8/2023, 5:22 PM
@Forthas - Are you sure?!? You'd better be sure because I was just about the hit "Send" on the email telling my boss to go f**k himself and then serve my wife the divorce papers (already packed up my kids' stuff and put the "For Sale" sign out in the front yard). But I'll hold off if you're sure. YOU'D BETTER BE SURE because I don't want to miss out on another opportunity like that one, no matter what. It's just too damn easy. I had even cut that line from the article ("Warner Bros. executives reportedly got hands-on with the Aquaman follow-up at one point") and was ready to paste it but I thought "You know what? That one's too obvious. Someone HAD o have beaten me to it." and sure enough, you did. But I'm NOT letting that happen again. Never again.
Baf
Baf - 9/8/2023, 6:27 PM
@Forthas - this
Ryguy88
Ryguy88 - 9/8/2023, 6:29 PM
@Forthas - is there an example of studios getting heavily involved in a production and it turning out well?
Forthas
Forthas - 9/8/2023, 9:38 PM
@Ryguy88 - In all seriousness, there is no way to tell. You would have to know what the film would have been both with or without studio interference. In the case of Warner Brothers some of their more recent CBMs where we know they got involved is so god-awful that it is hard to see how it could have been worse.
Ryguy88
Ryguy88 - 9/9/2023, 8:16 PM
@Forthas - well I guess most MCU movies had heavy studio involvement and lot of those turned out good.
THEDARKKNIGHT1939
THEDARKKNIGHT1939 - 9/8/2023, 1:36 PM
Imagine it's great.
FireandBlood
FireandBlood - 9/8/2023, 1:40 PM
@THEDARKKNIGHT1939 - you know what, with how out of touch WB is, it just might be. If any studio’s going to [frick] over a good movie, it’s them
KWilly
KWilly - 9/8/2023, 2:12 PM
@THEDARKKNIGHT1939 - The greatest movie never seen
mastakilla39
mastakilla39 - 9/8/2023, 4:22 PM
@THEDARKKNIGHT1939 - Doesn't matter its probably still going to flop. Gunn's Suicide Squad was their best film in a long time and that movie is 1 of their worst flops despite being 1 of their best rated by both audiences and critics. People are no longer interested in anything DCEU related. They are all saving their money for the Non canon spin offs like Joker 2 and Batman 2 or Gunns upcoming DCU.
Winston19
Winston19 - 9/8/2023, 1:36 PM
Just stream it then? You might get a couple new subscribers out of it for a month.
MarkJulian
MarkJulian - 9/8/2023, 1:36 PM
I think the failure of The Flash has them spooked. They pumped a lot of marketing into it and it was a historic flop.

In hindsight, don’t announce a new superhero cinematic universe before the current one actually over.
soberchimera
soberchimera - 9/8/2023, 1:41 PM
@MarkJulian - The board of directors at WBD needs to let Zaslov go, a dude who was in charge of a cable channel that specialized in bad reality shows is grossly unqualified to run a movie studio. Momoa has no controversies that I can think of and the first Aquaman movie is the most successful DCEU film BY FAR, the fact they're putting no marketing behind this film is just another sign of his incompetent, reactionary leadership.
mastakilla39
mastakilla39 - 9/8/2023, 4:26 PM
@MarkJulian - Shazam 2, Flash, and Blue Beetle all flopped in a row. All 4 high budget DC movies flopping in 1 year is going to be DC's worst year in history because movies are a bigger investment than comics.
soberchimera
soberchimera - 9/8/2023, 1:38 PM
The first one wasn't even that great and it made more than The Dark Knight. The last F&F movie with Momoa was garbage and it still was a modest success. Momoa's star power and the fact that it's a sequel to one of the most successful superhero film should have prompted WB to have more faith despite it being inferior to the first one quality-wise.
FireandBlood
FireandBlood - 9/8/2023, 1:39 PM
Is this Superman IV level of bad or what? They shook af
WakandaTech
WakandaTech - 9/8/2023, 1:40 PM
This would be the 8th straight massive flop for WB

Imagine thinking your going to make Billions on these 8 movies only to loose 100's of Millions on them

WOW
Matador
Matador - 9/8/2023, 1:41 PM
mountainman
mountainman - 9/8/2023, 1:42 PM
Warners should just sell DC to Apple, Amazon or Paramount at this point.
Matador
Matador - 9/8/2023, 1:44 PM
@mountainman - Netflix, Universal, Disney or [frick] it Blue Moon studios.
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