Ah, another year, another blockbuster superhero movie. This February sees the release of highly-anticipated movie The Batman. Starring Robert Pattinson as the eponymous masked hero, and Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman/Selina Kyle, the movie has been billed as a reboot of the popular DC franchise. It is one of the biggest Hollywood release since Chrisopher Nolan's Tenet hit screens back in 2020, and fans have been flocking in their masses back to movie theatres to catch R-Patz's first turn as The Dark Knight. Ticket sales for the movie's opening weekend are impressive, and The Batman has a chance to break box office records.
So how much money has The Batman brought in? Read on to find out.
6 'The Batman' Had A $200 Million Budget
Superhero movies usually come with an equally super budget. For The Batman, securing an amazing cast, creating enormous cityscape sets, batmobiles, bat lairs, and amazing CGI effects did not come cheap. In fact, the entire movie came in over $200m. In addition to this, many millions more will have been spent on advertising the movie globally - helping to secure ticket sales and lure patrons back into movie theatres after the long pandemic period.
Starting with such a high amount in the red means Warner Bros. had quite a way to go from the outset to earn back their investment.
5 There Is A Lot Riding On The Movie's Success
Big budget outlay aside, the studio also has other reasons to hope that Robert Pattinson's first outing as Batman will be a financial success. If the release goes well and a huge profit is made, future projects will more than likely receive the green light. Future films starring Pattinson - who will hopefully get his own Christian Bale-style run of movies - are said to be in the planning stages, and an HBO Max spinoff series is also supposedly in the pipeline.
4 How Much Did 'The Batman' Make On Its Opening Weekend?
Opening weekends are often make-or-break for big budget movies. Though some are more of a slow burn, the best results often comes from flying out of the starting gate. When The Batman was released in theaters, it made serious waves. In fact, it made an incredible $128.5 million at the North American box office. To put this in perspective, Joker made only $96 million back in 2019.
It is also one of the biggest weekend openings for a superhero movie. The Batman's Fri-Sun opening weekend beat several popular superhero films, like Batman Begins ($73 million in five days), Amazing Spider-Man ($134 million in six days), Man of Steel ($128 million) and Spider-Man: Homecoming ($117 million).
The movie did extraordinarily well even despite its unusual mid-week release date. Its official opening came on a Thursday, meaning that on the day The Batman made only $10m. Luckily, weekend sales made up the bulk of the overall sales figure for the opening weekend.
3 The Worldwide Total For 'The Batman' Was Even More Impressive
Globally, the picture was even more impressive. Internationally, 'The Batman' earned $120 million, bringing its global total to $248.5 million. In just its opening weekend alone, the movie had earned back its production costs. The movie will most likely run in theaters for many, many weeks, and will maintain a high level of income during that period.
2 'The Batman' Has Yet To Be Released In China
All these amazing figures do not even take into account the potential income The Batman could claw in when it is released in Asian markets. The movie was recently given the go-ahead to be released in China, and will hit cinemas in the country on March 18. China is an especially lucrative market for movies of this type, and ticket sales here will form a large chunk of overall profits for the picture.
To put things in perspective, recent DC titles featuring Ben Affleck’s Batman, Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice and Justice League, grossed $95.8M and $106M, respectively, in China. The Dark Knight Rises, with Christian Bal,e did about $53M there when the market was just opening up back in 2012. So The Batman has great potential to gross well over $100m here.
1 'The Batman' Has The Potential To Make Way Over $1 Billion
The Batman has started on a high, and is already over a quarter of a way to the $1bn mark, as it inches towards the $300m mark. Like many of its Batman predecessors, the movie has great potential to meet this magic figure - and could far exceed this with the right winds behind it. Critics are already raving about the movie - although perhaps complaining that it is a little overlong (at three hours, The Batman is butt-numbingly long) - and a great reception from audiences is also fueling further ticket sales as people head out to catch the new incarnation of the superhero figure. The only way is up!
