AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM (2023): DC’s Upcoming Tentpole Film Has Reports of Disappointing Test Screenings

Test Screenings Point to Problems with Latest Aquaman Film

It has been reported that Warner Bros.‘s forthcoming DC Christmas release, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, has been yielding disappointing test screenings results.

Early reports had suggested that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom had been testing satisfactorily. However, recent posts online have indicated that the film actually has some problems which may make the film fizzle if they are not corrected in time for the movie’s December 25, 2023 release date. This news comes on the heels of the studio scraping their Batgirl project altogether and the recent reports do not bode well for James Wan’s upcoming Aquaman sequel thus far.

Amber Heard’s appearance in the sequel to 2018’s Aquaman hardly seems a concern these days. What is a concern, however, is the fact that the second installment in the franchise is said to be “boring” by a rather reliable source. ViewerAnon has been one to make the claim that the upcoming sequel is not only “boring” but it actually pales in comparison to the original film (which didn’t set a very high bar to begin with). BSL (Big Screen Leaks) also made the news available to the public that test screenings have not been good for the highly anticipated sequel. In addition, Jeff Sneider put in his own two cents stating that he hears the movie is “terrible.”

Being that we’re about ten months away from the movie’s official release, it may be too early to hit the panic button about the quality of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Even if the picture is bad, it still stands to earn $180 million or so domestically because of the release date that it is now occupying. The first movie made an astonishing $335 million domestically and earned a total of just over $1.1 billion in combined grosses worldwide. With that kind of success, it would take a really bad film to hold audiences back from going to see it. Test screenings are not going to be the end all to the new movie’s success unless Wan and his crew don’t do anything to fix the problems that are being addressed with the picture. There’s plenty of time to remedy this situation.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will have to gross a lot of money just to break even. To see it make a substantial profit may seem like a long shot given the recent news regarding the test screenings. However, there is a built in audience for the movie that will certainly show up and it is essentially a “review proof” movie. The 2018 movie stands at just a 65% Rotten Tomatoes approval rating. The secret to the first film’s success was cashing on the popularity of the main character and a lack of comparable competition at the time.

There’s still plenty of time to find the movie that the studio wants to present to the audience in the editing room and it is almost certain James Wan will be working overtime to ensure that his latest Aquaman sequel makes well over $300 million domestically which it essentially needs to make to be considered a hit. With a lot of hard work, test screenings could improve and critical approval could also happen.

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