‘The Batman’ Flies to Slow Start at China Box Office as COVID Returns

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.

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.

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.

With this result, “The Batman” is now in striking range of the domestic totals of “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” ($330 million) and “Aquaman” ($335 million) as it still has one more weekend with major premium format support before the release of Sony/Marvel’s “Morbius” on April 1. The one blemish on the film’s numbers was its release in China this weekend, opening to just $12 million as it added $49 million from international markets.

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.

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.

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Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefTreasure-hunting action adventure “Uncharted” picked up $1.95 million in China on Monday, its official opening day, according to local box office tracking sources. Provisional data from Ent Group showed it launching in first place on Monday, becoming the first film to displace the long-running Chinese patriotic war movie “The Battle at Lake Changjin II,” which had reigned supreme since Feb.

BTS’ recent ‘Permission to Dance on Stage: Seoul’ concert live screenings reportedly took in over $32million (£24.5million) at the global box office.Over the weekend, the K-pop juggernauts held their first in-person concerts in over two and a half years at the Jamsil Olympic Stadium in Seoul. The March 12 date of the three-night ‘Permission to Dance on Stage: Seoul’ was also made available for “live viewing” in theatres worldwide, giving international fans a chance to witness the boyband’s return to the stage.According to The Hollywood Reporter, BTS’ ‘Permission to Dance on Stage: Seoul’ earned $6.9million (£5,288,840) in 800 theatres across North America, becoming the top-grossing live cinema event of all time.

In its sophomore outing, Warner Bros/DC’s The Batman kept a firm grip on the international box office, dropping just 42% to add $66.6M from 76 offshore markets. That brings the overseas cume through Sunday to $224.7M for $463.2M global. As the Robert Pattinson-starrer heads to $500M worldwide this week, in like-for-like markets and using today’s exchange rates, it’s currently tracking 132% ahead of pandemic comp Godzilla Vs Kong and is 44% above Wonder Woman, 36% ahead of The Dark Knight and 24% over Justice League.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefMainland China’s theatrical box office slipped to its lowest weekend total of the year as the market suffered a combination of rising COVID cases and a lack of new releases.Nationwide box office between Friday and Sunday amounted to just $19.2 million, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. It was the fifth weekend of decline since the splashy opening of eight major titles on Feb.