With $66 million in its second weekend of release, director Matt Reeves’ The Batman has made nearly $240 million domestically. The film swatted away concerns about its length and lack of action becoming factors in its second weekend, and held better than most comic book movies, especially those released during the pandemic. It fell by just 51%, and if you take away the preview grosses from its first Friday tally, the drop is even better, at just 41%.
By comparison, The Suicide Squad, Eternals, Black Widow and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings fell by anywhere between 53% to 71%. The Batman also performed better in its second weekend than other D.C. movies such as Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (-69%) and The Dark Knight Rises (-61%), Justice League (-56%) and The Dark Knight (-53%). Reeves’ three-hour, noir-inspired superhero epic made $134 million in its first weekend, marking the largest opening bow of the year, the biggest since December’s Spider-Man: No Way Home and the biggest Warner Bros debut of the pandemic era. Internationally, with another $66 million this weekend, The Batman stands at $463 million.
The film’s performance, and especially its surprising stronghold, should prove beyond a doubt that the appetite for event-driven superhero programming remains as strong as ever. Especially when you consider that No Way Home, despite having made nearly $1.9 billion globally in three months, is still a top-five player at the box office.
Total weekend sales stood at $106 million, which is around half of the same weekend in 2019, when Captain Marvel dominated the marketplace.
At the number two spot, Sony’s Uncharted made $9.25 million in its fourth weekend, taking its running domestic total $113 million. Internationally, the video game adaptation is nearing $300 million, with the all-important China release around the corner. But the big surprise of the weekend came in the form of the BTS concert film BTS Permission to Dance, which made $7 million for a number three finish. Remarkably, it’s playing in less than 1,000 screens, and even beat The Batman in some venues.
Also performing exceptionally well, Channing Tatum’s comeback starring vehicle, Dog, added another $5.3 million to its tally in its fourth weekend, for a running domestic total of $47.8 million. That’s a fine result for a film that cost a reported $15 million to make, and doesn’t involve spandex or CGI slugfests.
But the number five film on our list certainly does. With another $4 million in its 13th weekend, No Way Home’s running domestic total stands at $792 million. It’s now within touching distance of becoming only the third film in history to make $800 million at the domestic box office, after Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Avengers: Endgame.
Expect The Batman to dominate the box office until Sony’s Morbius arrives in theaters in the first weekend of April, or, at the very least, until Sandra Bullock and Tatum’s The Lost City debuts later this month.