Robert Pattinson’s The Batman grossed a massive $57 million at the box office on Friday, with its scheduled opening weekend topping $120 million.
The advent of the Warner Bros. and DC couldn’t have happened sooner for theater owners after a slow January and February in terms of Hollywood tents.
Directed by Matt Reeves, The Batman will easily be the second-best domestic opening of the pandemic era behind Spider-Man: No Way Home, which debuted with a staggering $260.1 million in mid-December and went on to gross over $1.85 billion. date at the worldwide box office.
The launch of Batman looks like a significant win considering it’s almost three hours long and much darker than No Way Home.
The PG-13-rated film, made by men aged 18 to 34, focuses on Bruce Wayne’s early days of fighting crime and is a gallery of Batman character rogues. Paul Dano plays the Riddler, a serial killer pursued by Batman, Zoë Kravitz plays Catwoman, and Colin Farrell appears as the Penguin.
Friday’s receipts for The Batman included $21.6 million from previews on Thursday and fan screenings at Imax theaters on Tuesday and Wednesday. Like other superhero films, the $200 million tent is doing significant business on Imax and other premium widescreen screens.
The world’s largest exhibitor, AMC Entertainment, is using the film as an opportunity to experiment with variable U.S. pricing and charge between $1 and $1.50 per ticket. This is for regular digital screenings; the premium for screenings on Imax and PLF screens operated by AMC is probably higher.
Overseas, Batman is opening in many markets, although its release in Russia was canceled at the last minute due to the invasion of Ukraine. It won’t be released in China until March 14th.
The Batman was well received by critics and received an A-CinemaScore from viewers, as well as high ratings on the PostTrack release. Good word of mouth will determine if a film can top $120 million in its domestic debut and help drive a box office recovery.
According to EntTelligence, The Batman accounted for more than 80 percent of all tickets sold on Friday, with 22 percent of viewers choosing to watch it in premium format.