Will The Batman meet current predictions to become (at least) Hollywood’s fifth-biggest pandemic-era film? As the film crosses the $300M mark globally, it’s looking well set to do so. Brandon Blake of Blake & Wang P.A. looks at the numbers for us.
Critical and Fan Performance
The Batman was always going to face a lot of scrutiny, representing the first superhero film and the first real blockbuster to follow in the wake of the runaway success of Spider-Man: No Way Home. To date, the Matt Reeves take on the Caped Crusader has held up well under both the critical gaze and fan opinion. This has been something of a surprise for many. The casting of Robert Pattinson, in particular, in the lead role faced something of a fan-driven kickback at first, even netting a petition to boot him from the role when the casting was first announced. Best known as the sparkly lead from Twilight, many fans felt he couldn’t possibly live up to expectations as the dark and broody superhero.
On the contrary, he’s managed to turn in a compelling performance that’s resonated well theatrically and with critics. While we saw a very slight drop-off in takings for the Tuesday following its opening weekend, it has still managed to keep overall takings buoyant, and the drop-off is reasonably comparable to that for many other films released at this time of year historically. It’s also perfectly reasonable to assume much of the focus will be on weekend showings as the world gets back to work.
Predicted Path
Crossing the $300M threshold brings it into direct competition with COVID-era key players like Tenet, Free Guy, Black Widow, F9, Dune, and even No Time to Die and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings. While there’s a long way to go before it could rival the exceptional performance of Spider-Man: No Way Home, a benchmark it likely won’t meet, that’s impressive enough at this time. There’s a realistic chance that, by the time you read this, it will actually crest the $400M mark, too.
With certain Asian markets only seeing their opening weekend this week, it’s an admirable performance, and one that still has reasonable room for growth still. This entertainment attorney will be watching its future performance with great interest.
Film and Television 