‘The Batman’ To Jump-Start Global Box Office With $225M+ Launch; Korea Already Soaring To Near $2M
02.03.2022 - 03:35
/ deadline.com
In the wake of Sony’s Spider-Man: No Way Home rattling box office records, and creating a gravitational pull toward cinemas with a $1.85 billion global gross, Warner Bros.’ The Batman is looking to keep this big screen rally going.
Industry projections for the Robert Pattinson movie stand at $115M-$125M domestic, and another $110M-$120M overseas for a global reach of $225M-$245M+. The movie, which carries a production cost of $200M, reps Warner Bros.’ return to pure theatrical releases since executing a day-and-date HBO Max strategy for its U.S. film slate, which began back at Christmas 2020 with Wonder Woman 1984.
In fact Batman fever has already fired up: the Matt Reeves directed DC Comics title opened in Korea today taking advantage of a public holiday and grossed a strong $1.7M (with previews). That’s easily Warner Bros.’ best launch day during the pandemic in the territory, the second best debut for a Batman movie since The Dark Knight Rises, and an industry best in the country for 2022 so far. This is all ahead of adding another 74 hubs through Friday. This is particularly impressive given that Covid infections spiked in the past day.
As far as domestic goes, Batman already began with 7PM shows tonight in 350 Imax locations timed to the world premiere in NYC, another set of 7PM showtimes tomorrow and Thursday night previews in 3,300 locations starting as early as 3PM.
Warners is spotting at least $90M domestic at 4,217 theaters (12,500 screens), however, I’m told by rivals that the heat on this movie, even though it’s not as high as Spider-Man: No Way Home, is still fantastically high. The movie is everywhere.
True, there’s bad news in the headlines, and prolific DC movies like Justice League and Joker opened to