‘The Batman’ begins with USD 57 mn. on opening day at US box office

Los Angeles, March 6 (IANS): Robert Pattinson-starrer ‘The Batman’ finally hit movie theatres this weekend and has grossed a whopping USD57 million from 4,417 locations in its opening day, though that’s a sum that includes USD 21.6 million from Thursday’s preview screenings.

The DC adaptation is tracking to open somewhere between USD120 million and USD 130 million for the weekend. With more than USD50 million already in the bank, ‘The Batman’ is already the biggest opening weekend of 2022, with aUncharted’ standing at a distant second with a USD 44 million three-day debut.

It’s yet another demonstration that superhero appointment viewing is in a league of its own for moviegoers, reports variety.com.

Compared to the franchise’s recent history, that figure would fall short of the opening weekend totals for Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight’ (USD158 million) and ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ (USD 160 million), as well as that of Zack Snyder’s crossover showdown ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ (USD166 million).

However, ‘The Batman’ is not a sequel like those films; instead, it’s a whole cloth reboot of the property, with a new cast, a new mood and a new story. Nolan’s reboot, ‘Batman Begins’, opened to $48 million in 2005 — a number that ‘The Batman’ is more than doubling.

Big-budget spectacles (and comic book adaptations, especially) can tend to be front-loaded in their box office hauls and ‘The Batman’ should be no exception. More than a third of its opening day grosses were earned through Thursday night previews.

However, Warner Bros. hopes the DC adaptation will have longer staying power thanks to its positive reception.

‘The Batman’ sees Robert Pattinson as the seventh actor to don the cowl of the Caped Crusader in a live-action movie. The film also stars Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, Paul Dano as the Riddler, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth and Colin Farrell as the Penguin.

Directed by Matt Reeves, the production proved to be a prolonged one due to the Covid pandemic, with a production budget ballooning past USD 200 million.

Video game adaptation ‘Uncharted’ looks to take the runner-up slot with a USD 12.4 million gross in its third weekend. The Tom Holland vehicle should clear a USD100 million domestic gross after Sunday, an achievement that will only be shared by ‘The Batman’ when drawing from 2022 releases.

Canine road movie ‘Dog’ continues to do solid business. The Channing Tatum vehicle added USD 1.6 million to its haul on Friday, a lean 35 per cent drop from a week ago. The film should expand its domestic gross to USD40 million through the weekend, a finish above USD 50 million looks to be in the cards. That’s a marked victory for a star-driven drama budgeted at USD15 million.

Even with competition in the superhero department, ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ is still sticking around the box office’s top five nearly three months after its debut. The MCU monster looks to take in USD 4.7 million in its twelfth weekend, a measly 18 per cent drop from its previous outing.

‘No Way Home’ domestic gross will stand at a colossal USD786 million after Sunday as the film crawls to a potential finish above USD 800 million.

‘Death on the Nile’ should round out the top five with a projected three-day haul of USD 2.85 million. After an underwhelming domestic opening of USD 12.8 million, Kenneth Branagh’s whodunnit has enjoyed some somewhat merciful holds.

The release now eyes a finish above USD 40 million. That’s a ways away from its reported USD 90 million production budget, though international grosses will buoy ‘Death on the Nile’ even further