‘Aquaman’ Leads New Year’s Eve Box Office With $10.1 Million
By Brent Lang
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “Aquaman” capped off 2018 in style. DC’s superhero adventure will cross the $200 million mark at the domestic box office just a few hours after the ball dropped on the year. Its total now stands at $199.5 million.
“” — directed by James Wan and starring Jason Momoa — topped the charts in North America on New Year’s Eve, pulling in a healthy $10.1 million on Monday. The Atlantean adventurer’s hold on audiences is good news for Warner Bros., which has had mixed results with launching its interconnected series of DC movies. “Wonder Woman” was embraced by moviegoers and critics. From there the results have been a mixed bag. “Suicide Squad” and “Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice” did healthy business without being particularly beloved by the general public. That’s more than can be said for “Justice League,” a dud that ranked as a major miss both critically and commercially.
The holiday results push “Aquaman’s” haul past $750 million at the global box office. The trident-wielding hero has resonated in a big way overseas, pulling in $562 million from international markets. “Aquaman” has joined “A Star Is Born” as Warner Bros.’ highest grossing domestic release of the year. Each film has now hit $200 million in the states.
Two movies have yet to report their New Year’s Eve grosses. Disney’s “Mary Poppins Returns” has yet to unveil its Monday haul, but as of the weekend the family film’s domestic haul stood at a respectable $99.2 million, so it should now be comfortably north of $100 million. After a slower-than-expected start the sequel has begun to rebound over the holidays. Paramount has yet to report grosses for “Bumblebee.” Through the weekend the “Transformers” spinoff generated $67.2 million.
In terms of other holiday offerings, Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation’s “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” took in $4 million on Monday, bringing the film’s domestic haul to $113.7 million. It’s a solid result for the movie, which is more than can be said for the studio’s other yuletide release, “Holmes & Watson,” a Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly comedy that flirted briefly with scoring a 0% favorable on Rotten Tomatoes. That figure has improved slightly and now stands at a disastrous 8% “rotten” on the review aggregator. The film brought in a measly $1.4 million on Monday, pushing its Stateside haul to $23.4 million. “Holmes & Watson” had been rumored to be a troubled production for months with Sony backing extensive reshoots and reportedly trying (and failing) to offload the movie to Netflix.
Clint Eastwood’s thriller “The Mule” continues to resonate with older crowds. The film, which finds Eastwood back in front of the cameras in a starring role for the first time since 2012’s “Trouble With the Curve” centers on an octogenarian drug runner. The picture has made a solid $64.7 million domestically.
Annapurna’s “Vice,” a satiric biopic about Dick Cheney, nabbed $2 million on Monday, bringing its domestic gross to $19.8 million. The film will need to continue to generate awards heat if it’s going to make back its $60 million production cost. The company seems to be having more success with “If Beale Street Could Talk,” director Barry Jenkins’ follow-up to his Oscar-winning “Moonlight.” The adaptation of a James Baldwin novel took in $164,170 from just 65 venues. The movie has so far made $2.1 million in limited release.
We will update this article as more results become available.
