Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, the second superhero movie starring Jason Momoa’s character, was beaten at the box office by a feature film that had a fraction of its budget, marking a new disaster for movies of its kind.

Video Wonkastarring Timothée Chalamet as the chocolatier created by British author Roald Dahl in his children’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factoryheld the top spot at the North American box office for the fourth consecutive weekend in theaters across the United States and Canada following its mid-December release.

The fantasy feature film from director Paul King earned $14.4 million from Friday to Sunday, according to estimates published on Sunday by the specialist company Exhibitor Relations, cited by AFP and Agerpres.

Wonka in doing so, it reached nearly $165 million domestically after its December release and more than $300 million internationally, achieving a “triumphant result” according to Variety magazine and repeating the success of the previous two films. with Gene Wilders and Johnny Depp as the eccentric chocolatier.

The horror film debuted at number two Night bathing, produced by Universal Studios and Blumhouse, about a family dealing with a haunted pool in their backyard. This modestly budgeted film grossed $12 million in its opening weekend.

The film received terrible reviews from critics, with an approval rating of 26% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 42/100 rating on Metacritic. Despite the box office success, the audiences who saw it were also unimpressedNight bathing has a 44% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.4/10 rating on Metacritic.

The film received an overall rating of 5/10 on IMDb.

The new movie “Aquaman” continues its disappointing streak at the box office

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom it dropped one spot to third place in the North American box office. Film produced by DC Studios and distributed by Warner Bros. grossed $10.6 million in its third weekend on the big screen.

Released on December 22nd, the weekend before Christmas, the feature film grossed $334,821,279 million worldwide. While Christmas movies don’t usually have impressive opening weeks, ticket sales usually increase after people start returning to theaters after the New Year.

The point is that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has now dropped to third place at the box office, but especially the current level of revenue are new ominous signs for the DC studio, owned by entertainment conglomerate Warner Bros. Opening after a disastrous 2023 for superhero movies.

Marvel’s superhero movies also didn’t have a good year, as their failure contributed to Disney, which owns the Marvel film franchise, losing its status as the top-grossing company at the box office for the year.

As of the end of last year, Disney has consistently held the top spot in the global box office rankings since 2015.

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Even Jason Momoa couldn’t revive the Warner Bros. franchise.

But if Marvel could at least console themselves with the success of the latter Guardians of the Galaxy moviethe fourth-highest-grossing feature film of 2023, DC had another weak year, with all of its superhero films grossing well below expectations and below production and distribution costs.

Of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, its production cost was $205 million. Although the film has grossed nearly $335 million so far, it’s unlikely that it will be a financial success for DC and Warner Bros. Discovery.

This is because for blockbuster films, global advertising and promotion costs are usually as high as production costs, sometimes significantly higher. On December 23, a day after the release of the film, the Bloomberg agency estimated that the new Aquaman would need to make $750 million to avoid another “disaster” for DC.

The disappointment is all the more so since DC had hoped that the name of Momoa, one of the most popular actors in Hollywood, as well as the huge success of the first film Aquaman from 2018 ($1.15 billion gross), provide a recipe for saving a year that studio heads would like to forget as soon as possible.

The weekend that just ended added salt to the wound, Night bathingthe film that just preempted it The Lost Kingdom at the box officewith a production budget of only $15 million, a fraction of what DC would have allocated for their feature film.

As always, you can find out more new information from the movie world and read other exciting news in this weekend’s Nerd Alert column:

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