SUNDAY UPDATE, Refresh for latest…: 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 where we saw it ahead of the debut. The international start is the industry’s best for 2022 and the biggest for Warner Bros since Joker in 2019. It is also WB’s top opening of the pandemic era internationally (excluding China) and the biggest international bow for Reeves.
The UK was the top launch market with $18.4M), followed by Mexico ($12M), Australia $9.2M, Brazil ($8.8M) and France ($8.5M).
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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).
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.
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.
