Justice League Becomes Highest Grossing DC Film in China

Justice League is now the highest-grossing DC movie in China. The fifth installment in Warner Bros.’ newly-formed DC Comics-based universe (unofficially titled the DCEU) – a follow-up to Zack Snyder’s 2016 film, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice – concludes the Superman story arc that began with the filmmaker’s 2013 film, Man of Steel, and unites the world’s finest heroes – Batman (Ben Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Flash (Ezra Miller), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), and Cyborg (Ray Fisher) – for the first time ever on the big screen.


Warner Bros. made several attempts over the years to bring the DC superhero team to life on the silver screen, but nothing something always seemed to get in the way. Snyder’s vision, though problematic for the studio, allowed them to finally adopt the Justice League and use the film as a launch pad for the rest of the burgeoning shared universe, which currently includes James Wan’s Aquaman, David F. Sandberg’s Shazam!, and Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman 2. Unfortunately, numerous behind-the-scenes issues ultimately led to Justice League becoming an inexcusable failure for the studio. At the moment, Justice League sits at 41 percent on review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes and is currently tracking below Man of Steel – but that doesn’t mean all the news is bad.


ComicBook reports that, with an estimated gross of $98.6 million, Justice League is now the highest-grossing DC movie ever to release in China, surpassing Wonder Woman‘s $90.5 million gross and Batman V Superman‘s $95.7 million grosses in just three weeks. Man of Steel, on the other hand, earned $63.4 million in China when it released in 2013, with Suicide Squad being the only DCEU movie that didn’t release in the country due to the film’s dark tone and more mature-themed content.


Justice League‘s China box office record isn’t the only record the movie has earned overseas. The film set an opening day record for a Hollywood movie in Brazil when it opened to $3.7 million in the country, with the total weekend coming out to $14.2 million. Overall, $371.8 million (65.2 percent) of the movie’s total box office cume comes from international markets, with the film’s domestic gross of $198.5 million falling far below expectations. This is the first live-action Justice League movie, after all.


While Justice League‘s domestic box office gross continues to disappoint, its international haul is contributing to Warner Bros.’ passing the $5 billion mark at the worldwide box office this year. However, it’s not difficult to imagine an enormously successful Justice League helping the studio push closer to $6 billion. Unfortunately, Warner Bros. won’t achieve that milestone this year.