'The Batman' Scores Massive $128.5 Mln Opening

© Photo : YouTube/Warner Bros. Pictures THE BATMAN – Main Trailer
THE BATMAN – Main Trailer - Sputnik International, 1920, 07.03.2022
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Warner Bros.’s The Batman posts a massive $128.5 million three-day opening in the United States. The mark is the second-largest opening weekend since the coronavirus pandemic largely shuttered the US box office behind Spiderman: No Way Home’s $260 million three-day opening.
Industry insiders had been projecting The Batman to open to around $100 million, but it pushing past the $125 million mark is a welcome surprise. The Batman brand had been in decline since the conclusion of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy in 2012 with The Dark Knight Rises.
The iconic superhero was rebooted by Zach Snider in 2016 with Batman v Superman: The Dawn of Justice. The film opened to a massive $166 million total in the US, but poor reviews saw it fizzle out quickly. The next Batman outing was Snyder’s and then Joss Whedon's Justice League.
The film was billed as DC Comics' response to Marvel’s hugely successful Avengers franchise. The film opened to a hugely disappointing $93 million in 2017 and effectively ended any hopes of a prospective franchise.
Warner Bros. brought on Matt Reeves, director of the final two films in the most recent Planet of the Apes series, to revitalize one of the studio's most bankable properties. The decision seems to have paid off with critics and fans alike.
The Batman currently has an 85% fresh rating from critics and a 90% audience score according to review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The fan response is especially impressive considering its massive run time of two hours and 56 minutes and dark noir setting.
This Oct. 27, 2019 file photo show actor Robert Pattinson at the Governors Awards in Los Angeles. - Sputnik International, 1920, 18.02.2022
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Another factor in The Batman’s success may be owed to Warner Bros. not making the film available for streaming upon its theatrical release through HBO Max.
Batman’s explosive return to the big screen has industry insiders wondering if the US box office can finally return to normal in 2022. 2020, the first year where Covid-19 impacted theaters, saw a $2.1 billion cumulative gross for all films. The total was the worst year for studios at the US box office since 1981 and represented an 81.4% drop from 2019’s $11.3 billion haul.
In 2021 the box office rebounded to $4.48 billion, but that was still the worst yearly box office return, excluding 2020, since 1991. While The Batman has those in the hard hit film industry hopeful, it remains to be seen if its success is a sign of things to come.
As of March 6, the yearly cumulative gross at the US box office stands at $929 million. That puts the industry at roughly a $3.5 billion pace. However, the film industry does most of its damage in the summer and winter months so 2022 racing past 2021’s $4.48 billion should be easily attainable. Whether or not 2022 can push closer to $11 billion, a mark the industry hit each year from 2015 to 2019, remains to be seen.
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