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.
07.03.2022 - 19:03 / thewrap.com
The Matt Reeves-directed blockbuster is set to be the biggest theatrical hit for Warner Bros. since the DC film featuring Batman’s nemesis “Joker” was in theaters in fall 2019. And for movie theaters, it’s a much-needed boost in business after theaters were closed in 2020 and spent much of the past year trying to get back on their feet as the box office recovered in fits and starts.
In fact, not only is this Warner’s best opening weekend since the $123 million opening of “It” in September 2017, it is the first film that was not released by Disney or produced by Marvel Studios to break the $100 million opening mark since Universal’s “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” in summer 2018. Globally, “The Batman” is off to a strong start on the road to $1 billion, earning an estimated worldwide opening of $248.5 million. That number could inch past $250 million after Sunday numbers are tallied.
The U.K. was the top overseas market with $18.4 million, followed by Mexico with $12 million and Australia with $9.2 million. The film will be released in Japan this Friday and in China on March 18.
Unlike “Batman v Superman — Dawn of Justice,” which was met with decidedly tepid reviews in 2016 and saw its numbers drop hard after opening weekend, “The Batman” should have strong legs throughout March with excellent critical and audience reception. It has Rotten Tomatoes scores of 85% critics and 90% audience to go with an A- on CinemaScore and a 4.5/5 overall rating on Postrak. The release of “The Batman” also meant a big weekend for Imax, which recently reported a profitable quarter for the first time since the pandemic began thanks to tentpole blockbusters.
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.
Naman Ramachandran Warner Bros.’ “The Batman” continued atop the U.K. and Ireland box office for the third weekend in a row with £3.3 million ($4.4 million), according to numbers released by Comscore. The film, starring Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz now has a total of £32.6 million.
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.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefRoland Emmerich’s space action film “Moonfall” landed in South Korea at the top of the box office chart. But the country’s continuing COVID problems mean that “Moonfall” and all other titles operated at a desperately low orbit.As the biggest new release of the week Moonfall pushed aside Korean-made “In Our Prime,” the previous weekend’s winner.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter“The Batman” is nearing a significant box office milestone.The newest superhero adventure, starring Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader, has generated $463 million globally, putting the Warner Bros. film within striking distance of $500 million, an important benchmark given its $200 million price tag. In non-COVID times, half-a-billion dollars would be an expected and relatively insignificant threshold for a big-budget comic book adventure.