‘The Batman’ Adds $36 Million at Box Office, Approaches $600 Million Worldwide

BTS.On the most recent episode of The Joe Budden Podcast, was released on April 6, the 41-year-old rapper discussed his thoughts about the K-pop boyband with co-hosts Ice, Ish and Parks Vallely, during which he said: “You can get mad at me… but I hate them BTS n***as.”When asked by his co-hosts to elaborate, Budden said: “Do I need a reason? … I hate them n****s. I don’t have to divulge my reason to you, I just hate them n****s.

Warner Bros’ Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore is releasing ahead of domestic in 22 international box office markets this weekend, beginning in Holland and Belgium today and including the UK, Australia, Germany, Japan, Spain and China through Friday. The latter, unfortunately, is not expected to serve up any magic given significant cinema closures.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefCinema box office in mainland China crumbled to its lowest weekend total this year as the film industry was once again hit by the impact of anti-coronavirus lockdowns. Nationwide, cinemas recorded just $12.6 million of business.Virus infections are spiking sharply upwards in some parts of the country, caused by the spread of the highly infectious Omicron variant of the COVID-19 disease, though in comparison with many other countries absolute numbers remain low.

Refresh for latest…: New blood in the form of Sony’s Jared Leto-fronted Morbius led the global box office this weekend with an $84M debut, while Paramount’s Sonic The Hedgehog 2 got off to a booming $25.5M start from its first 31 offshore markets. Warner Bros/DC also has something to crow about as The Batman topped $700M worldwide.

The biggest box office hit of the COVID era added $1.7 million this weekend in theaters to join “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and “Avengers: Endgame” as the only movies to hit that rare benchmark in the U.S. and Canada.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media WriterA Chinese visual effects and animation studio filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging that it is the victim of two American swindlers who forged documents, impersonated the CEO, and conned investors out of $234 million.Base FX, headquartered in Beijing, states that it was duped into trusting the two men — Remington Chase and Kevin Robl — over the course of several years, in which they engaged in several financing arrangements and a joint venture in Malaysia.However, over the last year and a half, the company has discovered that the men were using the relationship as a lure for investors, who were deceived into signing over $234 million, in what they thought were loans and investments in the company and its projects. Base FX alleges that Chase and Robl forged the signature of the company’s CEO on investment documents, created fake entities and bank accounts, had someone pretend to be the CEO in calls with investors, and set up a fake office for the company in Pasadena, Calif.

Broadcast and cable networks carried Joe Biden’s press conference in Brussels, where he is meeting with NATO allies, and reporters keyed in on one possibility: That Russia would use chemical weapons in the Ukraine war.

Ed Meza @edmezavarSpanish distributors, who have enjoyed a strong track record selling remake rights to local pics, have received a major boost this year with the Malaga Festival Industry Zone’s (MAFIZ) inaugural Remake Day event on Thursday.Leading film sales companies, among them Cinema Republic, Latido Films, Filmax and Feel Content, presented showcases of films considered particularly adaptable to foreign markets. Not surprisingly, comedies and genre pics made up most of the selections.David Castellanos’ Cinema Republic offered one strong example with Borja Cobeaga’s  hit 2009 romantic comedy “Pagafantas,” which has over the years sold to Germany, Italy and Mexico.Cinema Republic also touted Icíar Bollaín’s “Rosa’s Wedding” (“La Boda de Rosa”), about a woman in her mid-40s who decides to finally take charge of her life and fulfill her dream of starting a business.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief‘The Batman’ flew to an opening weekend of $11.6 million and landed in first place at the box office in China. It was the biggest opening this year in China for a Hollywood title but, with a return of coronavirus problems affecting cinema operations, the result has a tinge of missed opportunity.Data from consultancy Artisan Gateway showed the film amassing $11.8 million including previews from Thursday. Imax reported that the film earned $2 million of that total from its screens or 16% of the films China weekend total.

Refresh for latest…: Just days after Warner Bros/DC’s The Batman rounded the five-century mark globally, it is now just shy of $600M worldwide in its third weekend. A $49.1M overseas frame (down 46% versus last session) brings the international box office cume on the Matt Reeves-directed pic to $298M, with global standing at $598.1M through Sunday.

China where it earned $12.1 million in its first weekend. But about 43% of cinemas in China are closed due to the pandemic and “The Batman” still did slightly better than “Unchartered” which also opened there this weekend to $10.3 million.“The Batman” cost an estimated $200 million to make, not counting the many millions spent on marketing.

A global pandemic which closed a majority of the world’s cinemas from 2020-21 just won’t keep large format exhibitor Imax down.

The Batman remains a hit.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterRobert Pattinson’s gritty superhero adventure “The Batman” is the No. 1 movie at the domestic box office for the third weekend in a row.That feat is not surprising because March has been relatively light in terms of new releases.

“The Batman” earns its third No. 1 weekend with $10 million grossed on Friday and an estimated $39 million weekend total.

Earlier this week, “The Batman” became just the fifth Hollywood film in the past year to gross over $500 million worldwide and should pass the $300 million domestic mark and $600 million global mark by the end of this weekend. While the new COVID-19 infection surge in China has closed over 25% of theaters in that country as “The Batman” opens there, the film is still on pace to surpass the theatrical runs of “F9” and “No Time to Die” and become only the second Hollywood film to gross over $800 million since the pandemic began.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“The Batman” flew to a worryingly slow start on Friday at the mainland China box office, where Hollywood films have struggled of late and where the latest coronavirus surge is threatening films of all origins.By 3.30pm on its first full day, the Warner Bros. noir had earned a lowly RMB12.1 million, or $1.90 million at prevailing currency rates, according to provisional data from ticketing agency Maoyan.

Warner Bros/DC’s The Batman has winged its way past the half a billion dollar mark worldwide to become the fourth highest-grossing studio release of the pandemic era. The global total is $505.8M through Wednesday, and there’s still plenty of gas left in the Batmobile.

After two weeks in theaters, Warner Bros./DC’s “The Batman” has passed $500 million at the global box office, with more than half of that total coming from domestic theaters. On Wednesday, “The Batman” added $5.75 million domestically, bringing its total to $258.3 million in North America and $505.8 million worldwide.