‘The Batman’ To Continue To Dominate In 2nd Weekend
After making over a quarter of a billion dollars worldwide in its first weekend, The Batman goes into weekend two ready to dominate once again. Pixar’s Turning Red was scheduled for a theatrical release on March 11, but as the Omicron variant was spreading in January it was decided that the film’s release would move to Disney+ (with a theatrical run at Disney’s El Capitan Theatre). Now there are no new films going wide in the aftermath of Warner’s latest reboot of its top grossing superhero franchise, giving the film a smooth glide above the rest of the titles for the next few weeks, and possibly for the entire month of March.
By the end of the weekend or early next week, The Batman is likely to pass Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ($225 million) to become the second highest grossing film at the domestic box office since the start of the pandemic, and it is already the biggest pandemic-era grosser for Warner Bros. In case there was any doubt with whether or not the higher ups at WB were happy with the gross, you can be assured by the fact that the in-development HBO Max spinoff-show The Penguin was just given a straight to series order.
Audiences showed no signs of being scared off by what is the darkest and longest film in the entire franchise, but the second weekend will be a test of whether the film has broad appeal to match the series’ highs. The positive reception for the Robert Pattinson starring film suggests at least a solid hold. The A- CinemaScore is below the A’s scored by the three films in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy, but it is above Joker’s B+, Batman v Superman’s B, and Justice League’s B+. The Rotten Tomatoes rating is behind The Dark Knight but on par with Nolan’s other two and far above the Batman films in the DCEU.
It is hard to draw any conclusions from the weekday holds. The Batman had a standard 68% drop from Sunday to Monday, and it remained above $10 million, making it the third best first week Monday since the start of the pandemic, behind Spider-Man: No Way Home and Shang-Chi (which was on Labor Day). The similar gross on Tuesday was the second best first week Tuesday. It should enter the second weekend above $170 million. The question is if the film has the mild drops of Joker (42%) and The Dark Knight (53%) or the steeper drops of The Dark Knight Rises (61%) and Batman v Superman (69%).
Wherever it falls, it is on track to become one of the top five highest grossing Batman films (including Joker). It will pass Batman Begins (currently number six with $205 million) this weekend, and the 1989 Batman (number five with $251 million) is likely to be surpassed next weekend. Though the top tier of The Dark Knight ($533 million) and The Dark Knight Rises ($448 million) is almost certainly out of reach, at least domestically, the next two films, Joker (which opened modestly for a Batman film with $96 million and held strong to gross $335 million) and BvS (which had a huge $166 opening but slowed down to a $330 million finish), could be toppled if The Batman holds well. The Batman’s $134 million opening was right in between them, and if it holds closer to Joker than BvS it could come out ahead.
Internationally, Joker looks like it will get the last laugh with its $739 million foreign gross. Unless it strikes lightning with audiences, which we should get a sense of this weekend, The Batman is likely to fall short, despite some strong openings with many territories ahead of Joker. The best international gross for a film focused on the caped crusader is The Dark Knight Rises’ $633 million. In like-for-like markets The Batman ran only 5% behind Christopher Nolan’s series finale in its opening weekend. The film opens this weekend in Japan, though the China release will have to wait another week, and the Russia release remains off the cards for now.
The rest of the box office has little to get excited about. The Batman made up 80% of the entire box office last weekend, and we’ll see a similar bat-eclipse this weekend. There is still some juice left in Uncharted, though, and the China release on Monday the 14th (four days prior to The Batman) should be enough to get it to $300 million worldwide.
By the end of the weekend or early next week, The Batman is likely to pass Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ($225 million) to become the second highest grossing film at the domestic box office since the start of the pandemic, and it is already the biggest pandemic-era grosser for Warner Bros. In case there was any doubt with whether or not the higher ups at WB were happy with the gross, you can be assured by the fact that the in-development HBO Max spinoff-show The Penguin was just given a straight to series order.
Audiences showed no signs of being scared off by what is the darkest and longest film in the entire franchise, but the second weekend will be a test of whether the film has broad appeal to match the series’ highs. The positive reception for the Robert Pattinson starring film suggests at least a solid hold. The A- CinemaScore is below the A’s scored by the three films in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy, but it is above Joker’s B+, Batman v Superman’s B, and Justice League’s B+. The Rotten Tomatoes rating is behind The Dark Knight but on par with Nolan’s other two and far above the Batman films in the DCEU.
It is hard to draw any conclusions from the weekday holds. The Batman had a standard 68% drop from Sunday to Monday, and it remained above $10 million, making it the third best first week Monday since the start of the pandemic, behind Spider-Man: No Way Home and Shang-Chi (which was on Labor Day). The similar gross on Tuesday was the second best first week Tuesday. It should enter the second weekend above $170 million. The question is if the film has the mild drops of Joker (42%) and The Dark Knight (53%) or the steeper drops of The Dark Knight Rises (61%) and Batman v Superman (69%).
Wherever it falls, it is on track to become one of the top five highest grossing Batman films (including Joker). It will pass Batman Begins (currently number six with $205 million) this weekend, and the 1989 Batman (number five with $251 million) is likely to be surpassed next weekend. Though the top tier of The Dark Knight ($533 million) and The Dark Knight Rises ($448 million) is almost certainly out of reach, at least domestically, the next two films, Joker (which opened modestly for a Batman film with $96 million and held strong to gross $335 million) and BvS (which had a huge $166 opening but slowed down to a $330 million finish), could be toppled if The Batman holds well. The Batman’s $134 million opening was right in between them, and if it holds closer to Joker than BvS it could come out ahead.
Internationally, Joker looks like it will get the last laugh with its $739 million foreign gross. Unless it strikes lightning with audiences, which we should get a sense of this weekend, The Batman is likely to fall short, despite some strong openings with many territories ahead of Joker. The best international gross for a film focused on the caped crusader is The Dark Knight Rises’ $633 million. In like-for-like markets The Batman ran only 5% behind Christopher Nolan’s series finale in its opening weekend. The film opens this weekend in Japan, though the China release will have to wait another week, and the Russia release remains off the cards for now.
The rest of the box office has little to get excited about. The Batman made up 80% of the entire box office last weekend, and we’ll see a similar bat-eclipse this weekend. There is still some juice left in Uncharted, though, and the China release on Monday the 14th (four days prior to The Batman) should be enough to get it to $300 million worldwide.
