Not even the very pandemic that brought the movie industry to a halt can stop The Batman, that is because Matt Reeves' film has now practically cleared the $600M mark even in spite of a Chinese premiere that went far below what was initially forecasted.
It was only last week that The Batman confirmed itself as one of DC’s most successful productions in recent years, not only commercially but also as one of the few movies put out by the studio that won over critics, audiences, and even Hideo Kojima. All this had set up Robert Pattinson's Batman for a stellar debut in China, however, right before the March 18 premiere, the country saw a sudden rise in COVID cases that prompted government authorities to shut down close to 50% of the theaters in the nation.
Regardless of that, The Batman saw no trouble continuing its fantastic performance in the United States and other countries. The DC film raked in $36M over the weekend in the US (down 45% from last week) and $49.1M internationally (down 46%), bringing the total box office revenue to a staggering $598.1M. This is all despite the disappointing $12.1M collected from Chinese theaters, a drastically reduced number from what movie insiders in China had projected, though it’s still enough for The Batman to beat out past DC movies overseas.
Comparatively speaking, The Batman overseas revenue is on track to surpass what the likes of Justice League and Wonder Woman earned back in 2017. This despite the fact that those two movies were released in the pre-pandemic era, and both benefited from ticket sales in China of over $90M. In the United States, The Batman saw its biggest competition from the anime film Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie, which trumps last week’s Uncharted with $14.8M earned.
Considering the film has only been out for three weeks now, the film probably has plenty of steam left, especially if one is to judge it by the standards of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which somehow was able to bring $3.2M home for Sony ahead of its March 22 digital release. While The Batman's lure is still far off Spider-Man's mass appeal, and comparing the two is definitely an apple vs. Oranges exercise, the former is 2022’s most successful movie thus far and only looks likely to be dethroned by a Marvel production or something like Top Gun: Maverick or Jurassic World Dominion.
Suffice to say, The Batman is not a feel-good movie in any sort of way, as Reeves' very goal was to make the darkest version of Bruce Wayne seen up to date in film. Perhaps that’s why The Batman villains fit its tone so perfectly, despite Paul Dano's Riddler being so different from any other incarnation of the character.
The Batman is currently available in theaters.
Source: Deadline