Benjamin Franklin, it’s said, once remarked that houseguests, much like fish, begin to stink after three days. That’s about how much time it took for “Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom” to come up smelly and sink Warner Bros Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) shares fractionally in Tuesday morning’s trading session with it. Opening night saw “Aquaman” bring in around $28.1 million. Objectively, that’s $28 million, but subjectively, it’s a disaster. It’s actually the fourth-lowest debut that a title in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) has seen so far.
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Moreover, it’s also a sign of serious trouble from the entire DCEU franchise. Only one film in the entire series so far, “Black Adam,” has brought in over $60 million in its opening weekend, when it brought in $67 million. Warner, for its part, was looking for “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” to pull in a grand total of between $32 million and $42 million. That’s still a clear slump against the $67.8 million that the first “Aquaman” installment brought in back in 2018.
Aquaman Trounced the Competition
While the holiday weekend might have helped Aquaman’s performance, it might also have hindered it. The field wasn’t exactly abundant with new titles to watch: “Aquaman” trounced the competition, comprised mostly of a sports biopic, “The Iron Claw,” a romantic comedy, “Anyone But You,” and a cartoon about migratory birds, “Migration.” The problem, however, is that “Aquaman” also trounced the competition in cash spent.
Warner shelled out a whopping $205 million to put that one out, which means it struggled to realize even 15% of its budget thus far. “Aquaman” even failed to beat the dogs from Disney (NYSE:DIS), as “The Marvels” still managed to pull in $47 million. While it won’t be the worst from DC—those honors, such as they are, go to “Blue Beetle” and “Shazam: Fury of the Gods”—it’s still not good news.
What is the Target Price for Warner Bros Discovery Stock?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on WBD stock based on 10 Buys and six Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 21.78% rally in its share price over the past year, the average WBD price target of $16.23 per share implies 44.4% upside potential.
