Justice League Is Officially The Lowest-Grossing DCEU Movie
The Justice League is officially living in the worst possible timeline.
After having the worst opening weekend in its shared universe to date, Justice League is ending its worldwide theatrical run at the very bottom of the DC Extended Universe, earning less than Batman v. Superman, Wonder Woman, Suicide Squad, and Man of Steel.
You can see the numbers for yourself at Box Office Mojo, where no matter how you slice it, the Justice League has lost. Globally, the movie clocks in at a $657.9 million take, notching about $10 million less than Man of Steel and a jaw-dropping $100 million less than the otherwise unknown Suicide Squad.
(According to one particularly savage tweet from box office trackers Exhibitor Relations, Justice League's domestic take has been finalized with a total comparable to the 2008 Will Smith-starring superhero movie Hancock, an original bit of intellectual property with no name recognition whatsoever.)
How did this happen? For decades, the so-called trinity of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman have been seen as the center of the DC Comics universe in the public eye. These were the marquee heroes, the modern myths who would draw audiences in droves as a matter of course. Instead, the long-awaited on-screen teamup of the heroes as the famed Justice League completely fizzled, paying the price for a long string of subpar and unsatisfying movies.
For the sake of comparison, the most recent movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Thor: Ragnarok, and Black Panther, all earned over $850 million worldwide. Black Panther, a previously obscure hero rarely discussed outside of nerdier circles, could conceivably end its run with close to double the box office take of Justice League, having already crossed the billion-dollar mark while battling back the releases of both A Wrinkle in Time and Tomb Raider.
It's been pointed out that if you were to go 20 years back in time and tell a group of geeks that a Justice League movie would tank both critically and commercially, utterly trounced by the likes of then C-list heroes like T'Challa, the Odinson, and the Guardians of the Galaxy, leaving an Aquaman movie of all things as the DC brand's evident last hope — well, you'd certainly have a spirited argument on your hands. Today, it's just a matter of fact, a testament to the level of quality control in play at Marvel Studios relative to the brand's biggest rival.
The next movie in the DCEU, Aquaman, will be out in theaters on December 21, with the movie's prospects currently riding high after advance screenings which reportedly went great. The next movie in the MCU, Avengers: Infinity War, has already broken sales records in anticipation of its April 27 release.