The Batman is off to a flying start at the box office, having already pulled in $21.6 million since premiering with previews on Tuesday. The Matt Reeves directed film is a new offering to the heavily saturated superhero market. It is less of a hero action film, and more along the lines of a horror-thriller likened more to Saw and Zodiac than its predecessor, Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy. The film has received good reviews across the board, which seems to be reflected in its current box office earnings.
Starting Tuesday night, The Batman screened as one-showtime-only previews, mainly at IMAX cinemas, and made $4 million, so the other $17.6 came from ticket sales after 3pm on Thursday. It’s already a healthy figure and will continue to grow as the film goes from being released in 3,000 cinemas to 4,217 from today.
When we compare these preview earnings to those of other films from the DC Universe, we can see that it is doing well, having already passed Justice League ($13 million) and Wonder Woman ($11 million) but falling a little short of other Batman films, The Dark Knight ($18.5M), The Dark Knight Rises ($30.6M) and Batman v. Superman ($27.7M). Still, for a film coming out in the current pandemic landscape, The Batman is doing pretty well so far.
And of course, it’s only going to get higher, as Deadline reported that Warner Bros had $50 million in pre-sales ahead of the weekend and are expecting to see a strong turnout for tickets bought on the day as well. With more interest piqued in the film, and good reviews appearing everywhere, including a respectable 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s safe to assume that it will draw in more crowds who may not have initially been interested in the latest incarnation of the caped-crusader, played this time around by Robert Pattinson.
