Following in the footsteps of the highly successful Wonder Woman, Justice League has been seen as another step in the right direction for Warner Bros. and its DC Extended Universe. But it turned out that it really didn’t mean much, as it’s become yet another divisive DCEU film. And, whether hardcore fans like it or not, this does have a great influence at the box office.
A few days prior to Justice League's release, most predictions had the movie making over $100 million in the US over its debut weekend. The most optimistic forecasts put the film’s first three days of earnings at around $130 million.
But now that the movie is finishing out its first weekend in theaters, it looks more likely to make less than $95 million in the US. Of course, that’s a respectable sum. At the same time, it’s also the least lucrative opening weekend in the history of the DCEU, which is even more telling when you realize that it marks the first time that all of the DC's heaviest hitters have simultaneously appeared on the big screen.
Justice League opened on the same day in almost all markets, and early predictions had it earning around $325 million dollars worldwide. But now that we’ve seen what it actually brought in, the number is likely to decrease even further.
Again, Justice League is far from being a flop. However, the film’s budget was reportedly around $300 million, so it needs to make at least $600 million worldwide for the studio to make a profit.
Justice League needs to do well at the box office for the studio to even consider a sequel, but numerous reports have it that the movie, while great fun, is a mess. And word of mouth isn't helping in the least.
Still, we're looking forward to Aquaman and any subsequent Warner Bros./DC project.
