2021 saw a bit of normalcy brought back to the box office with hits such as Spider-Man: No Way Home, F9, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. With The Batman being WB’s first big exclusive movie to play in theaters in over two years since Tenet, audiences everywhere are loving Matt Reeves’ epic three-hour noir take on the Caped Crusader. With the studio course-correcting their controversial day-to-date release, the movie’s final box office numbers have arrived. Experts predicted the film would track around from $120-$150+ million debut. While the movie did do solid numbers, ultimately The Batman opened to a dazzling $128.5 million! Right down below, we break down all the records and other box office numbers the latest solo Batman movie has broken so far!
The Batman U.S. Domestic Box Office By The Numbers
To chart the last couple of days, let’s start with opening night previews. Counting the fan event screenings held on Wednesday ($4 million), the movie scored a grand total of $21 million. With those numbers, that puts it just below Batman V. Superman ($27.7 million) but way above The Dark Knight ($18.5 million). Compared to other DC films, The Dark Knight Rises ($30.6 million) is still the reigning champ with Justice League ($13 million) and Wonder Woman ($11 million) rounding out the last two spots.
On Friday, The Batman gained the second-biggest opening by pandemic standards with a total of $57 million! By comparison, the film beat Nolan’s Batman Begins ($48 million) in one day. Though, The Batman’s Friday opening is just below other DC feature film Suicide Squad ($64.8 million).
By comparison for March, The Batman is the fifth-highest opening with Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (2017) still in first ($174.7 million). Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice ($166 million), Captain Marvel ($153.4 million), and The Hunger Games ($152.5 million) round out the list. For openings on other Batman-related films, it trails behind The Dark Knight ($158 million) and The Dark Knight Rises ($160 million). Though it outperformed Todd Phillips’ Joker ($96 million) and topped the entire domestic theatrical run of Dune ($108 million). The Batman is the biggest opening for director Matt Reeves and is Robert Pattinson’s first film to top $100M opening weekend since 2012’s Twilight: Breaking Dawn Pt.2.
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All in all, with numbers like this, they aren’t anything to shy at. Scoring an “A-” on Cinemascore we expect the movie to have some strong legs for the next few weeks. With any luck, WB could likely announce plans for a sequel. In the meantime, the studio plans to expand Reeves’ world of The Batman to the small screen with a TV series focusing on the GCPD. A spinoff on Colin Farrell’s Penguin is also in the early stages of development. For some folks that are waiting to stream it on HBO Max, the movie is scheduled to arrive on April 19th.
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