The Batman Has A Great Opening Weekend At The Box Office, Despite Not Putting Up Spider-Man Numbers

[Taylor Swift]

Marvel set a pretty extreme bar last December.

 

 

Going into this weekend, some things were patently obvious in the realm of box office prognostication. There was never any question that Matt Reeves' The Batman would dominate the field in the Top 10 rankings; it was clear that the film would become the second since March 2020 to earn over $100 million in its first three days; and it was understood that the blockbuster would not be able to eclipse the ridiculous total earned by Jon Watts' Spider-Man: No Way Home in its debut last December.

Of course, the big unknown was in the precise details – where the movie would land in the record books after its opening, and how close it would actually get to the most recent Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. Those answers have now come to light, and as you can see in the Top 10 below, The Batman did quite well following its domestic premiere. Check out the numbers, and join me after for analysis!

 

TITLE    WEEKEND GROSS    DOMESTIC GROSS    LW    THTRS
1. The Batman*    $128,500,000    $128,500,000        4,417
2. Uncharted    $11,000,000    $100,276,384    1    3,875
3. Dog    $6,000,481    $40,007,000    2    3,507
4. Spider-Man: No Way Home    $4,400,000    $786,488,223    3    2,709
5. Death On The Nile    $2,727,000    $37,094,747    4    2,565 
6. Sing 2    $1,520,000    $153,592,735    6    2,026
7. Jackass Forever    $1,360,000    $54,452,006    5    1,981
8. Cyrano    $682,607    $2,574,557    9    797
9. Scream    $570,000    $80,225,807    10    853
10. Marry Me    $530,000    $21,413,740    7    1,246

 

They Aren't Spider-Man Numbers, But The Batman Did Extremely Well

Because of the scale of the Batman brand (no reference to Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice intended), it can be tricky to precisely judge the performance of any new entry in the franchise – but in this case, it can be said that The Batman did great as a series starter.

While the new DC film didn't open as big as Zack Snyder's aforementioned Batman v Superman ($166 million), or the last two Christopher Nolan entries in the Dark Knight Trilogy ($158.4 million and $160.9 million), Matt Reeves' movie is the first canon-launcher to make nine figures in its opening. Obviously we're living in very different times now than in 2005 when it comes to the consumption of big screen superhero content  – not to mention the factor of inflation – but the total earned by The Batman since Friday is 2.6 times more than what Nolan's Batman Begins did in its first three days about 17 years ago ($48.7 million). 

And while it was obvious that it was going to happen, the fact that this is a new movie making more than $100 million in its first three days is still something worth celebrating given the shaky state of the theatrical industry since early 2020 and the pandemic shut downs. Only eight movies total have made more than $50 million in their opening weekends, as it's not exactly a diverse field. The Batman, Cary Fukunaga's No Time To Die and Justin Lin's F9 are a part of what is otherwise an all Marvel party, including Spider-Man No Way Home, Cate Shortland's Black Widow, Destin Daniel Cretton's Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, Chloé Zhao's Eternals, and Andy Serkis' Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

 

Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) and Batman (Robert Pattinson) in The Batman

(Image credit: Warner Bros.)

 

Given that The Batman was made for a rather stunning $200 million budget, according to The Numbers, the new film still has to sell a lot of tickets to become fully profitable – if not especially because that nice round figure doesn't including publicity and marketing costs. Earnings from overseas will ultimately boost the worldwide total in a massive way, but we don't yet know how the blockbuster did abroad.

The Batman is likely going to be a notable presence in the Top 10 for the next couple months (if not especially because Hollywood isn't offering anything on its same scale for the rest of March), but it does have some obstacles to face in becoming a long-running hit. 

One of the more obvious is its runtime. The movie might only be 27 minutes longer than Spider-Man: No Way Home, but that's a chunk of time that has an impact on screening schedules and the number of times it can be shown in a day. It also means that it is not a cinematic experience people can necessarily just walk into – it's the kind of thing to which you dedicate your evening plans. 

The big plus in its corner is that it is a title that is earning all matters of raves and buzz. Critics have certainly fallen hard for it, with review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes  showing The Batman sporting an impressive 85 percent approval rating, and post-screening surveys distributed by CinemaScore have delivered it an "A-" grade

It's certainly a great start for the big plans that DC Films has for 2022, as Matt Reeves' blockbuster is one of five major titles they have coming out this year – the others including Jared Stern's animated League Of Super-Pets, Jaume Collet-Serra's Black Adam, Andy Muschietti's The Flash, and James Wan's Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom. You can keep track of all the projects coming from the comic book franchise via our Upcoming DC Movies guide.

Uncharted And Dog Hold On Strong Despite The Domination Of The Batman

It can sometimes be the case that the arrival of a new mega-hit can drive all box office attention away from anything else that is playing in theaters, but in the case of this weekend, both Ruben Fleischer's Uncharted and Channing Tatum and Reid Carolin's Dog managed to hold on strong. The two films premiered two weekends ago, and while the former is certainly out-performing the latter, they are doing solid business respectively.

The video game movie, for example, has joined the unfortunately elite group of post-March 2020 titles that have earned more than $100 million at the domestic box office. Along with the $100.3 million that Uncharted has made in the United States and Canada,  it's also pulled in $171.3 million from overseas – bringing its worldwide total to $271.6 million. Tom Holland is definitely proving himself a big box office draw around the globe.

Dog isn't doing business quite on the same level, as it's only made about $4 million to date from foreign markets, but it's doing just fine here at home. The canine-centric road trip feature has made $40 million, and it followed up its stunning 32 percent weekend-to-weekend drop last time around by only dropping 41 percent.

Looking ahead, movie fans can look forward to another weekend of The Batman dominance, as Hollywood isn't putting out a single new film in wide release on Friday. Will the Caped Crusader inspire repeat customers? Will those who were on the fence about going to see it feel more inclined next weekend? Come back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday to see how it all shakes out – and in the meantime you can check out our 2022 Movie Release Calendar to learn about everything coming out between now and the end of the year.