In its third weekend out, box office receipts for The Batman fell by almost half compared to last week but still managed to push it past fellow DC blockbuster Justice League's total worldwide theatrical gross. The Matt Reeves-helmed title exceeded market expectations, raking in $25.3 million to come in second behind Sandra Bullock-starting debut The Lost City, which netted $31 million and knocked The Batman off the top earnings spot for the first time since its release.

Overall, Robert Pattinson's first venture as the Caped Crusader has brought in $340.9 internationally and $331.9 ($672.8 combined). That's just a hair over 2016's Justice League's $657.9. Counting for inflation, of course, the Zack Snyder epic still maintains a slight edge.

Still, it has a ways to go before surmounting recent pre-COVID DC releases such as Wonder Woman ($822 million), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($873.6), The Dark Knight ($1 billion), Joker ($1.07 billion), The Dark Knight Rises ($1.08 billion), and Aquaman ($1.14 billion). The Batman is also comfortably atop the 2022 earnings leader board, with Chinese blockbuster Water Gate Bridge sitting behind it with $626.2 million.

The Batman Threatening Penguin
Image via Warner Bros

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Featuring Pattinson as a deeply emo version of the classic character along with Paul Dano as the Riddler, Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, Colin Farrell as the Penguin, Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon, and a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance by Barry Keoghan as someone, The Batman has benefited from strong reviews and a lack of competition in its first weeks out. Typical of most critics, Collider's Ross Bonaime wrote, "Reeves has made the best Batman film since The Dark Knight, with a captivating and rich world that reinvigorates characters we’ve already seen on screen over and over again." It currently enjoys an 85% Rotten Tomatoes rating.

The Batman's numbers, along with The Lost City's strong first-weekend showing, adds to the generally encouraging trends we're seeing at theaters. So long as COVID case numbers hover at a somewhat manageable low, it seems, consumers are in the market for bold, loud escapism with strong Rotten Tomatoes ratings. We'll have to see if audiences carry that forward with any of this week's upcoming titles, including Jared Leto's turn as a vampire antihero in Morbius, the Chris Pine vehicle The Contractor, and darker, smaller release efforts including Barbarians, Nitram, and You Won't Be Alone.