Robert Pattinson's debut as the Caped Crusader in The Batman had a big $134 million opening weekend at the domestic box office, but how does that compare to the rest of the Batman movies or other comic book movies? While Gotham's Dark Knight is one of the most popular cinematic characters in history, the movies featuring him don't actually have the strongest box office track record.
Ths big screen plan for DC Comics characters has been unclear ever since Warner Bros. abandoned Zack Snyder's original DCEU plan, and now with multiple changes in direction, the release of the Snyder Cut, stand-alone movies like Joker, and now another new continuity with The Batman, the DC multiverse is clearly growing, even if it's still not clear which direction it's growing in. Regardless, with Robert Pattinson's first appearance as Batman and both Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck reviving their interpretations of the character in The Flash movie later this year, it's a big year for cinematic Batman.
It may only be the first weekend at the box office, so even with a strong $134 million domestic turnout, the movie's full box office performance isn't clear yet, it's the best opening weekend numbers seen by a DC movie since 2016. Just how does that compare to other similar movies and how successful will it be?
The Batman's Box Office Is the 2nd Best Post-Pandemic Opening
The Batman's $134 million box office opening is the biggest first-weekend haul in 2021 and the second-highest opening since the start of the pandemic, behind Spider-Man: No Way Home, which opened to a much higher $260 million and went on to become one of the top-grossing movies of all time. The Batman's total box office gross will ultimately depend on how much momentum it can maintain in the coming weeks, but it's off to a solid start.
One of the big box office questions is the long-term effects of the pandemic on box office. Spider-Man: No Way Home proves audiences are ready to return to theaters, but the same isn't true for every movie. Some big tentpole blockbusters like Spider-Man: No Way Home or The Batman could still draw pre-pandemic numbers, or possibly even higher if theatergoers are simply consolidating their attendance and prioritizing bigger movies instead of smaller movies they can catch on streaming a few weeks later thanks to shorter box office windows post-pandemic.
The Batman's Box Office Opening is the Only the 4th Highest For a Batman Movie
Despite The Batman's big opening, it's actually only the fourth-biggest box office debut for a movie featuring Batman, behind Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($166 million), The Dark Knight Rises ($160 million), and The Dark Knight ($158 million), just barely passing Suicide Squad ($133 million), or the third-highest if we only count solo Batman-centric movies. As noted above, it's hard to directly compare any of these because they all released before the pandemic, but as we see with Spider-Man: No Way Home, that doesn't necessarily guarantee a lower box office haul anymore.
The real test of The Batman's box office power will be in its performance in the coming weeks, since even movies like the pre-pandemic Aquaman, which opened to just $67 million domestically, or Joker, which opened to $96 million domestically, but both of which become one of the few DC Comics movies to earn $1 billion globally thanks to strong legs in the weeks after release. The Batman has little competition until Morbius, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore release in April, meaning it should maintain a fairly strong showing thanks to its strong reviews.
How Successful is The Batman's Box Office?
Box office success can be hard to contextualize outside of a simple head-to-head horserace comparison, which has even less relevance in 2022 than it did pre-pandemic. Various factors like budget, release date, inflation, and the evolving landscape of the global box office make it hard to get an apples-to-apples comparison even just to movies released a few years ago, much less something like 1989's Batman, which opened with a $40 million box office haul, over $90 million in today's dollars, with a lower average ticket price, and before the international box office was as developed as it is today.
When it comes down to it, a movie's box office is a product of numerous factors in addition to quality and shouldn't be taken as a reflection of whether or not a movie is good; however, from a financial perspective, it's a little more clear cut. For a movie to turn a profit, it needs to earn more than it cost, which is usually calculated as twice the production budget. It was initially reported that The Batman's budget was reportedly just $100 million, but thanks to pandemic complications, it ballooned to $200 million, meaning The Batman will likely need to clear $400 million at the global box office to break even and turn a profit.
By that measure, The Batman is in pretty good shape so far. For comparison to The Batman's $134 million opening, the superhero movies with the most similar first weekend box office are Deadpool's $132 million opening in 2016, Suicide Squad's $133 million in opening 2016, and Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2's $146 million opening in 2017, with each movie's global haul coming to $784 million, $745 million, and $869 million, respectively. The Batman's $134 million ended up higher than some initial projections, and with its strong reviews it's safe to assume it'll wind up in that range, but its 3-hour runtime, lingering pandemic concerns, and a shorter 45-day theater exclusive window before it winds up on streaming, it faces a few challenges the aforementioned comparisons didn't.
At the same time, box office is only one way to measure a movie's profitability, and things like the 45-day box office window could actually work in Warner Bros.' favor since streaming revenue has a far better profit margin than theatrical ticket sales, not to mention merchandise and other licensing. All things considered, WB is surely more than happy with The Batman's performance so far, and while the universe is already set to continue on HBO Max through a few different streaming series, more spin-offs and sequels are surely in consideration to capitalize on The Batman's strong debut.
