Matt Reeves and Peter Craig’s The Batman earned around $10.9 million on its first weekday, dropping a reasonable 68% from its robust $34 million Sunday gross for a $145 million four-day cume. That’s better than the over/under 70% drops experienced by Captain Marvel, Logan, Oz: The Great and Powerful and Alice in Wonderland on this same early March Monday in 2019, 2017, 2013 and 2010.
Oddly enough, the biggest Monday gross for the month of March is not Beauty and the Beast (which holds the March weekend record with $174 million) but Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman, which opened on Easter weekend and had a quasi-holiday on day four, leading to a $15 million Monday after a $166 million weekend. That gross and that mere 55% drop gave us all exactly 24 hours of false hope in terms of the film’s legs before it dropped 19% on Tuesday and grossed less on day six/Wednesday than did Snyder’s Man of Steel three years earlier.
One thing to watch for as the film opens in Japan this weekend and China on March 18 will be how much of a 50/50 performer it is worldwide. With few exceptions, the Dark Knight tends to be a North America-skewed tentpole franchise. Tim Burton’s Batman was the fifth-biggest grossing movie of all time domestically with $251 million in 1989, but it was second worldwide just for the year to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ($474 million versus $411 million for Batman).
Even in 2008, Chris Nolan’s The Dark Knight was the fourth $1 billion grosser, but also the last $1 billion earner to gross more than 50% in North America. Its $533 million domestic cume was second only to Titanic ($600 million prior to the 2012 3-D reissue), but its $470 million overseas cume was right between Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ($473 million) and Mamma Mia! ($466 million). Yes, Mamma Mia! and The Dark Knight opened on the same day and grossed near-identical overseas cumes.
Likewise, Burton’s Batman Returns earned $162 million domestic and $266 million worldwide in 1992. That was about half of that year’s top earner, the $504 million-grossing Aladdin and behind the $321 million-$411 million likes of Lethal Weapon 3, Home Alone 2 and The Bodyguard. Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever earned $184 million domestic and $336 million worldwide in 1995, second for the year domestically but globally behind the $345-$366 million likes of Pocahontas, GoldenEye, Apollo 13 and Die Hard with a Vengeance.
Nolan’s Batman Begins earned $206 million domestic in summer 2005 but less overseas ($166 million) than the likes of even Fantastic Four, Hitch, Chicken Little and Kingdom of Heaven. It barely earned $11 million more outside of North America than the other DC Comics flick of 2005, Constantine ($75 million domestic and $230 million worldwide). So when I talk about a straight-up Batman reboot not being an automatic sure thing at the global box office, well, I’m old enough to remember when a sequel to Batman Begins wasn’t a certainty.
Prior to The Dark Knight Rises ($449 million + $633 million = $1.084 billion in 2012), the only Batman movie to skew overseas was Schumacher’s Batman & Robin, which earned $130 million out of $238 million in foreign territories in summer 1997. The Dark Knight Rises, which earned $55 million in China back when that was a top-tier result (and after The Dark Knight didn’t play in China at all), remains the only pure Batman movie to earn even 55% of its global total overseas. Right now, Reeves’ The Batman sits (as of Sunday) at 52/48, meaning it’ll probably pass $300 million worldwide today or early tomorrow.
The “exceptions” remain the ensemble films, like Batman v Superman ($330 million + $542 million = $873 million), Suicide Squad ($325 million + $420 million = $745 million sans China) and Justice League ($229 million + $427 million = $656 million). That makes Joker ($335 million + $737 million = $1.073 billion sans China) all the more impressive. Hell, comparing Joker, Suicide Squad, Batman and The Dark Knight to everything else (Birds of Prey, Batman Forever, The Suicide Squad, etc.), you might argue that Joker is a bigger overseas draw than Batman. If that’s the case, then Barry Keoghan may want to start playing hardball.
