Never underestimate the power of word-of-mouth, as The Batman‘s final numbers have found their way online and surprised many with the film’s Sunday dropping by 21% from Saturday, which is way lower than its initial 35% estimate. As such, it pulled in $34M and now stands at a strong $134M opening weekend rather than the initially reported $128M.
These numbers further solidify The Batman as Warner Bros.’ strongest opening since the pandemic started, and is Matt Reeves‘ biggest opening for any of his releases. The big question remains just how strong its legs are going to be, especially with the confirmed April release on HBO Max. Their 45-release window strategy will open up some new challenges but could set the standard for the future of cinema.
Still, a 10% drop from the expectations is quite astonishing, and that is for a very genre-defining take on a superhero film. Batman is a very popular character, but it seems like a sign that people were waiting for this kind of film to offer something unique. It seems that even the almost three-hour runtime wasn’t going to scare anyone off, and it’ll be interesting to see how strong its second weekend might be.
Source: Twitter