Robert Pattinson’s dark superhero adventure The Batman is the No. 1 film at the domestic box office for the third straight weekend.
This feat is not surprising as March was relatively light in terms of new releases. But while there wasn’t much competition, The Batman managed to pull off impressive holds week in and week out. The film grossed $36.8 million from 4,302 theaters between Friday and Sunday, down just 45% from last weekend.
These ticket sales take The Batman to over $300 million in North America, making the comic book adaptation the second pandemic-era film to break that benchmark after Spider-Man: No Way Home.
At the international box office, the Warner Bros. film opened at a subdued $12.1 million in China — where 43% of the country’s theaters are closed due to COVID-19 cases. Overall, The Batman added $49.1 million from 76 overseas markets, bringing its global total to a whopping $598 million. These returns represent a necessary commercial win for Warner Bros., which has spent $200 million producing The Batman and many millions more marketing the film to audiences around the world.
Two new films opened nationwide, but Funimation’s manga adaptation Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie and A24’s slasher thriller X posed no threat to The Batman.
The PG-13 “Jujutsu Kaisen 0” took second place on the domestic box office charts and grossed a remarkable $17.6 million from 2,340 locations when it debuted. Anime films are growing in popularity in North America, and Funimation, which recently merged with Crunchyroll and is mostly owned by Sony Pictures, has been at the forefront. Last spring, the film company opened Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train for $21.2 million, a tremendous result at a time when theaters were operating at reduced capacity.
“This is a great opening,” said David A. Gross, who runs film consultancy Franchise Entertainment Research. “Reviews are exceptional for this and all Funimation/Crunchyroll films. You didn’t miss.”
Meanwhile, “X” came in fourth with $4.2 million from 2,865 venues. Those numbers mark a quieter start, especially given the plaudits “X” received after it premiered at the South by Southwest film festival earlier this month.
However, as Gross points out, “Horror isn’t expensive to make – clever cinematography, editing and sound design go a long way. ‘X’ should cover his expenses and make a few bucks after all the side bucks are counted.”
Ti West wrote and directed “X,” which follows actors making an adult film in rural Texas. But when the reclusive hosts, an elderly couple, catch the guests in the act, things get dicey.
Variety’s chief film critic Owen Gleiberman promises that ‘X’ will ‘earn your fear’. He calls the film “a deliberate, loving, and meticulous tribute that doesn’t simply seek to quash the legacy of the greatest horror film of the last half century.”
Tom Holland’s video game adaptation Uncharted, now in its fifth release weekend, topped X in the box office and took third place. The Sony Pictures action-adventure grossed $8 million in 3,700 theaters and took Uncharted to $125.8 million at the domestic box office.
At the international box office, Uncharted surpassed $200 million, taking its worldwide gross to $337.3 million.
Channing Tatum’s canine adventure Dog took fifth place, knocking Spider-Man: No Way Home out of the top five for the first time in 14 weeks.
“Dog” grossed $4 million from 3,307 locations, bringing the film’s total in North America to $54 million. It’s a great result for the road trip buddy comedy that only cost $15 million to produce. And it’s encouraging evidence that studios can still make a profit from non-superhero films — as long as budgets don’t get out of hand.
And “Spider-Man: No Way Home” — even after three and a half months on the big screen — was no dimwit, grossing $3.2 million from 2,585 screens. As of this weekend, the comic epic grossed $797.56 million at the domestic box office. It’s only a stone’s throw to become the third film in history to top 800 million in North America, following Avengers: Endgame ($858 million) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($936 million). exceeds US dollars.