‘Aquaman’ Gets an A- CinemaScore

It looks like Aquaman is making a serious splash with audiences.

CinemaScore, the company that measures audience reaction to films, has awarded Aquaman with an impressive A- score. It’s a score that is pacing just ahead of the DC Extended Universe film’s Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score that, as the time of this writing, was sitting around 86-percent.

Both CinemaScore’s A- and the Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score are both quite a bit higher than the film’s critical rating with the Jason Momoa-starrer currently sitting at a respectable (and still fresh) 63-percent on the Tomatometer which looks at the critical reviews of films. That said, Aquaman receiving such high marks from fans isn’t exactly a huge surprise. In a Rotten Tomatoes poll earlier this month, fans voted Aquaman the most-anticipated December movie release, besting competition like Mary Poppins, Bumblebee, and even Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Man with a total of 10,107 votes — a tally made all the more dramatic when you realize the second place Spider-Verse only received 1,183 votes.

In addition to the impressive CinemaScore, Aquaman is also performing very well at the box office. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the James Wan-directed film raked in a substantial $9 million at the North American box office on Thursday night. When you add that money to the special, one-night Amazon showings last Saturday, the film has already brought in $13.7 million at the domestic box office. The film is expected to continue to do well at the box office over the five-day Christmas holiday weekend as well, on track to bring in a whopping $120 million or more.

Part of that box office success — as well as the impressive audience reaction to the film — may be in part due to the film’s stunning visual effects. The movie’s visuals have been the one element that most critics and fans alike agree are a major strength in the film, something that ComicBook.com’s own Brandon Davis said was, by themselves, worth the price of admission.

“Though the film is heavily computerized through most of its sequences, Wan and the effects team crafted underwater sequences seamlessly. The film is visually stunning which earns the price of admission alone,” Davis writes.

Aquaman is directed by James Wan and stars Jason Momoa (Arthur/Aquaman), Amber Heard (Mera), Nicole Kidman (Queen Atlanna), Patrick Wilson (Orm/Ocean Master), Willem Dafoe (Nuidis Vulko), Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), Ludi Lin (Murk), Dolph Lundgren (King Nereus), Djimon Hounsou (The Fisherman King), Natalia Safran (Fisherman Queen), and Michael Beach (Jesse Kane).

Do agree with Aquaman‘s CinemaScore? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Aquaman is in theaters now.