There's plenty of reason for the higher-ups over at Warner Bros. to be concerned following the opening weekend of BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE. Oh, sure… the movie brought in a great deal of money from its initial public offering, but the largesse of those box office receipts don't exactly tell the whole picture. The film saw a gradual drop from Friday through Sunday, which isn't good for word of mouth or the legs Warner Bros. needs the film to have in order for them to do more than just break even. The film's CinemaScore clocked in at only a B, which is okay but far from the great reception that was being anticipated, and, with so many eggs being put in the basket of the DC Cinematic Universe that was being built upon the shoulders of BATMAN V SUPERMAN, you can understand why some at the studio will be waking up with cold sweats until they can get everything on even ground.
Fans and critics alike have been hammering home certain problems with BATMAN V SUPERMAN (I'm sure you have your own issues that may have come up in your viewing), and, because of how the world has been set up with DAWN OF JUSTICE, there has to be some consideration being given as to how different things can be tweaked on the fly without restarting anything. Tone, once again, seems to be a big issue that needs addressing, and you would hope course-correction is a part of the plans for both SUICIDE SQUAD and WONDER WOMAN. After all, there is no sense traveling further down the super-serious rabbit hole if that's a sticking point for a lot of viewers.
James Wan appears to have gotten that memo for AQUAMAN, too, as he spoke about the film over the weekend at WonderCon while promoting all the horror he's attached to this summer. In fact, he went way out of his way to talk about how much fun he expects to be having with AQUAMAN, which, in turn, should mean you get to have a lot of fun with AQUAMAN. And in case you haven't picked up on it yet, the key word seems to be fun.
The kind of filmmaker that I am, you know, even my darker horror films generally are still very fun, and I think that’s important. I think Aquaman is a character that is, you know, a lot of people have made fun of over the years, and I just think it’s fun to actually show a really different, cool, badass side to this character, but at the same time, let’s not forget to have fun with it.
While it may not seem like a big deal now, think of how many times you heard the word "fun" used to describe either MAN OF STEEL or BATMAN V SUPERMAN. It's as if the word was banned from being associated with either picture. And I think someone finally noticed and is trying to get the talking points around to everyone that fun is back on the menu.
Does that mean more fun films are on the horizon for the DCU? I don't know that we're going to get anything as comic book-y as what Marvel puts forth regularly (which isn't a good or bad thing, just a Marvel thing), but I would suspect some very intense conversations are being had right now on the Warner Bros. lot about how they fix their long-term approach to DC immediately before it all blows up in their faces… and fun is no longer a taboo subject.
AQUAMAN swims into theaters on July 27, 2018.