SUNDAY UPDATE, writethru: Warner Bros/DC’s The Batman winged into 74 offshore markets this weekend, landing $120M at the international box office through Sunday. Combined with the $128.5M domestic start, the global launch is $248.5M.
The Matt Reeves-directed Batman was No. 1 in 73 of its openings, and came in at the high end of the range we were seeing ahead of the weekend. The international start is the industry’s best for 2022 (No. 3 for the pandemic when backing out China and Russia) and the biggest for Warner Bros since Joker in 2019, as well as the top international bow ever for Reeves.
While this is WB’s first time out domestically in a purely theatrical play after its HBO Max day-and-date pandemic strategy, that was never a factor overseas as films unspooled only in cinemas abroad throughout, kicking off early in many cases to avoid piracy issues. The Batman’s performance is again great news for the offshore theatrical business — when the product is there, audiences will come, particularly for a gripping, buzzy title and even despite its three-hour running time.
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The Batman should have wings going forward — Japan opens this coming Friday while China follows on March 18 and there is plenty of runway until Sony’s Morbius gets its fangs out at the end of March.
In notable performances for the Caped Crusader, the UK and France benefited from having talent travel to the markets — a promotional factor that has been sorely missed during the pandemic. Australia also did great business even despite flooding in the eastern part of the country and new Covid restrictions in the west. Latin America, which loves DC, went batty for Robert Pattinson’s brooding turn in the suit. If there was slight weakness, it was in Asia where Korea has been battling an omicron spike.
Drilling further into numbers in the Top 5 markets, The Batman dominated the UK ($18.4M) with 75% of the Top 5 and coming in 9% above Joker and 22% above The Dark Knight. Mexico grossed $12M and had a huge 89% of the Top 5, tracking roughly on par with Joker there and 18% over Venom 2 — it scored the 2nd biggest opening of the pandemic. Australia ($9.2M) likewise notched the 2nd best pandemic start and WB’s best since Aquaman; The Batman came in 31% bigger than Joker and 82% ahead of Venom 2 there. Brazil ($8.8M) clocked the 3rd best DC debut of all time and the 2nd biggest pandemic start for 40% more than Joker and 179% more than Venom 2. In France ($8.5M), The Batman topped The Dark Knight in admissions by 4% and is WB’s best opening since Joker.
Rounding out the Top 10 are Germany ($5.1M), Korea ($4.4M), Italy ($4.1M), Spain ($3.7M) and India ($3.4M).
In like-for-likes and at today’s rates, The Batman is tracking 8% behind The Dark Knight Rises, 10% ahead of Justice League, 43% ahead of Wonder Woman, 45% ahead of The Dark Knight and 143% above pandemic-era comp Godzilla Vs Kong.
In IMAX, The Batman delivered $22.3M worldwide, the biggest global opening weekend for the format in 2022 and the 2nd biggest since December 2019. On 320 IMAX screens in 74 overseas markets, the movie scored $7.3M for a per screen average of nearly $23K. Four markets saw their best-ever IMAX DC launch including Sweden, Belgium, Argentina and Curacao. Thirteen other markets enjoyed their 2nd best including the UK, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Switzerland, India, Denmark and UAE. The Batman wings to 39 IMAX screens in Japan on Friday.
In holdover play, Sony’s Uncharted dropped by 50% in the third weekend of wide release. In 64 markets, the Tom Holland-starrer grossed $17.4M for a $171.3M overseas cume and $271.6M global to date. The UK is the top market with $27.5M followed by France ($14.9M), Russia ($14.8M), Spain ($10.5M) and Australia ($9.7M). Coming up, China releases a week from Monday on March 14.
In other news, Universal/Illumination’s Sing 2 surpassed the lifetime of the original in the UK with $40.5M while Universal/Focus’ Belfast became the biggest black-and-white film of the modern era there with £14.53M ($19.4M), overtaking Schindler’s List.
MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE
Death On The Nile (DIS): $5.1M intl weekend (41 markets); $78M intl cume/$115.1M global
Sing 2 (UNI): $4.24M intl weekend (67 markets); $206.7M intl cume/$360.24M global
Spider-Man: No Way Home (SNY): $4M intl weekend (63 markets); $1.08B intl cume/$1.86B global
Belfast (UNI): $2.17M intl weekend (27 markets); $28.9M intl cume/$37.6M global
Marry Me (UNI): $1.05M intl weekend (67 markets); $25.6M intl cume/$47M global
Clifford The Big Red Dog (PAR):$905K intl weekend (25 markets); $57M intl cume/$106.3M
Jackass Forever (PAR): $767K intl weekend (14 markets); $17.2M intl cume/$71.7M global
PREVIOUS, SATURDAY: With 74 overseas markets now open, Warner Bros/DC’s The Batman has grossed $54M through Friday, on its way to a $110M+ international box office launch. The running global cume through Friday is $111M, including the domestic $57M start (which factored in the film’s preview program).
The Robert Pattinson-fronted/Matt Reeves-directed latest take on the Caped Crusader kicked off international rollout early on Tuesday in Korea (see below) and has added another 73 markets through yesterday. On Friday, it winged to $26.5M from 30,218 screens.
Notably, the UK debuted to a strong £4.8M ($6.4M) for the 2nd-highest opening day of the pandemic, and with an 89% share of the Top 5 films. Results there are 24% ahead of Joker, 68% ahead of The Dark Knight and 392% over Dune. The running cume, including previews, is £5M ($6.7M).
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Spain also had a good start with $1.2M from 1,103 screens and 78% of the Top 5 films. This is roughly on par with The Dark Knight and nearly double the opening of Dune as well as being the 2nd-biggest opening day of the pandemic.
While the UK leads all play through Friday, Mexico ($5.2M), Brazil ($4.6M), France ($4.4M) and Australia ($4M) also are lending power to The Batman.
In Korea, the Saturday number (not included in the totals above) saw a 170% increase from Friday for a local cume of $3.52M through today. Korea has been experiencing an Omicron spike, breaking a record of daily cases and deaths on Friday, then easing just slightly on Saturday.
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PREVIOUS: Warner Bros/DC’s The Batman is just beginning to spread its wings overseas and has a running international box office total of $5.3M across two days and from only eight markets. The Matt Reeves-directed Robert Pattinson starrer is adding 47 markets today and a further 19 on Friday.
After debuting to $1.7M in Korea on Tuesday — and taking advantage of a public holiday there — it set Warner Bros’ best launch day during the pandemic, the second-best debut for a Batman movie since The Dark Knight Rises and an industry best in the country for 2022 so far.
Rollout continued Wednesday with France launching to $1.4M. Including previews, the market cume is $2.1M which is the best opening of the year and the biggest pandemic opening for a Warner Bros film there. The results are at the same level as The Dark Knight, and ahead of Dune (+42%) and Aquaman (+72%).
In Sweden, The Batman grossed $414K on opening day Wednesday, good for 28% more than The Dark Knight and more than double that of Dune.
Indonesia gave the film a 91% share of the market on Wednesday with $362K for the best Batman debut ever, as well as WB’s best of the pandemic.
Belgium brought $193K to Gotham, with PLFs representing 42% of the opening day. Results are on par with The Dark Knight and 42% over Dune.
The numbers overall are encouraging as we head into the weekend on what has been a hugely anticipated film. There are still Covid headwinds to be considered — i.e. parts of Western Australia are affected and in the east of the territory they are dealing with flooding.
As ever, once we get into the weekend everywhere, we’ll have a better outlook.
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