The Batman took flight at the domestic box office with $21.6 million in previews for Warner Bros. and DC. That includes Thursday night shows, and limited Tuesday and Wednesday Imax sneaks.
The $200 million event pic — starring Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader — is widely expected to zoom past $100 million by Sunday and score the second-best opening of the pandemic era behind Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Batman’s preview gross is the second-best of the pandemic era after No Way Home ($50 million). Black Widow took in $13.2 million, followed by Venom 2 ($11.6 million), Eternals ($9.5 million) and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ($8.8 million).
And The Batman even beat preview grosses for several pre-pandemic superhero pics, including Suicide Squad ($20.5 million) and Joker ($13.3 million.) The big caveat: Batman’s $21.6 million figure includes the limited Imax fan screenings.
The Matt Reeves-directed film centers on Bruce Wayne’s earlier days of fighting crime, and is a rogues’ gallery of Batman characters. Paul Dano plays the Riddler, a serial killer pursued by Batman, while Zoë Kravitz plays Catwoman and Colin Farrell appears as the Penguin.
Theater owners are counting on The Batman to draw big crowds after a slow January and February.
The world’s largest exhibitor, AMC Entertainment, is even using the movie as a chance to experiment with variable pricing in the U.S. and charge anywhere from $1 to $1.50 more for a ticket to Batman.
Overseas, The Batman opened to a promising $5.3 million on Tuesday and Wednesday from its first handful of markets. The movie launched in an additional 47 markets on Thursday, although its release in Russia was scrubbed at the eleventh hour because of the invasion of Ukraine.
The Batman in France on Wednesday opened to $1.4 million for an early total of $2.1 million including previews. That’s the best showing for a Warners title since the pandemic began; ditto in other markets where it launched midweek.
In the U.S., The Batman is the first title from Warners to receive an exclusive theatrical release since the end of 2020. All 2021 Warner Bros. films debuted simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max.
The Batman has been well received by critics.
“With his Planet of the Apes installments, Matt Reeves demonstrated that big studio franchise movies based on iconic screen properties didn’t have to exclude intelligent, emotionally nuanced storytelling. The same applies to The Batman, a brooding genre piece in which the superhero trappings of cape and cowl, Batmobile and cool gadgetry are folded into the grimy noir textures of an intricately plotted detective story,” writes THR‘s David Rooney.
There are several reasons why The Batman will likely come in well behind No Way Home‘s stunning $260 million domestic debut. Reeves’ film runs nearly three hours, and is far darker than No Way Home, which featured several generations of actors who have played the web-slinger.
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