'The Batman' Nabs បំបែកកំណត់ត្រាដំបូង $129 លានដុល្លារ

Now that’s more like it, Mr. Wayne. After a Thursday-skewed opening day gross (with 38% of its $57 million Friday gross made up from pre-release previews), Batman kicked box office butt on Saturday and Sunday for a rock-solid $128.5 million domestic debut. That’s a decent 2.25x weekend multiplier, a little low under normal circumstances not far behind Knight ដោយងងឹត ($158 million from a $67 million Friday in 2008) and Joker ($96 million/$40 million in 2019). The Thursday grosses, including Tuesday/Wednesday sneak previews, made up a business-as-usual (for a more fan-driven superhero flick) 17% of the weekend total). More importantly, Batman nabbed the biggest Fri-Sun opening weekend for any straight-up reboot, superhero or otherwise, besting Batman ចាប់ផ្តើម ($73 million in five days), បុរសម្នាក់ពីងពាងអស្ចារ្យ ($134 million in six days), បុរស​ដែកថែប (១៤១ លានដុល្លារ) និង អង្គការ SPIDER របស់ Man: ការវិលត្រឡប់មកវិញ (៤ លានដុល្លារ)។

Batman was never going to open with grosses on par with Superman ជួបរឿង Batman ($166 million in 2016), let alone Spider-Man: គ្មានផ្លូវនៅផ្ទះទេ ($260 million). It’s not the first ever pairing of the Caped Crusader and the Man of Steel, nor is it a multi-generational nostalgia event that appeals to half-a-dozen different franchise fanbases in one kid-friendly package. Matt Reeves’ Batman is a three-hour, action-lite, grimdark detective melodrama that exists outside of any existing franchise, including the ongoing DC Films continuity. The cast is made up of well-respected but not “butts in seats bankable” draws (Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz, Colin Farrell, Paul Dano, etc.) playing characters already seen in other live-action Batman movies (Catwoman, Penguin, Riddler) in a story not that different from what’s come before on the big screen. This opening is a best-case-scenario win.

Credit the obvious IP value of the Caped Crusader in live-action cinematic form, along with the canny commercial choice to cast media-friendly Robert Pattinson in the title role. Like Tom Hardy in Venom or Tom Holland in មិនអាចដឹងបាន, Pattinson’s onscreen/offscreen persona made him an added value element playing (as my daughter kept saying) “Emo Batman who looks like Peter Parker after he goes full-Venom in Spider-Man ៣ ។” The marketing campaign has been relentless, beginning with a super-early trailer at the 2020 DC Fandome event (back when the film was hopefully still going to open October 1, 2021) and then launching the rest of the marketing in, well, October 2021 with the trailer that played in almost every theater showing Venom: Let There Be Blood, No Time to Die, Eternals, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Spider-Man: No Way Home និង Matrix Resurrections.

The “Bat and the Cat” trailer debuted in late December 2021. If you went to a theater for any “big” movie (save for maybe ច្រៀង ២ or មន្តស្នេហ៍) over the last four months, you probably saw a splashy trailer for Batman. Yes, I’d argue there was a lot of generational amnesia at play in terms of selling the film as “the first true detective story” or “this time, it’s super dark and about political corruption” or what-have-you, but A) that’s my personal pet peeve and B) it clearly worked. That the marketing gave away almost every major action beat and character interaction is also a point of frustration, but I won’t argue with results. When WB is on its game, nobody is better at selling movies of all shapes (អ្នកលបបាញ់អាមេរិក), sizes (A Star Is Born) and dispositions (វា).

Batman earned $57.1 million on Friday, $43.2 million on Saturday and an estimated $28.2 million on Sunday. I’m expecting those estimates to go up tomorrow morning once final earnings are released, as is usually the case with these big blockbuster releases. Why overestimate on Sunday when you can underestimate and get another day of positive coverage on Monday? The film played a whopping 30% in premium (IMAX, Dolby, etc.) locations, including $15 million in IMAX alone. That means the handwringing about a modest តម្លៃ increase from AMC and Regal chains (for this specific movie, rather than an across-the-board price hike) didn’t seem to have much impact. It was, obviously, the second-biggest opening weekend since ការកើនឡើងនៃ Skywalker ។ in December 2019, between Spider-Man 3 កំណែ 2.0 (២១ លានដុល្លារ) និង Venom: សូមឱ្យមាន Carnage (៤ លានដុល្លារ)។

Here’s some arbitrary trivia: Batman had the biggest opening ever for a “part one” Batman movie (ព្រឹកព្រលឹមនៃយុត្តិធម៌ is still a sequel to បុរស​ដែកថែប) and Warner Bros.’ first $100 million-plus debut since It ($123 million) in September 2017. Among all WB debuts, it’s behind only Harry Potter និង Deathly Hallows វគ្គ ២ (១៧៧,៨ លានដុល្លារ), Superman ជួបរឿង Batman (១៧៧,៨ លានដុល្លារ), The Dark Knight Rises (១៤១ លានដុល្លារ) និង Knight ដោយងងឹត ($158 million). Amusingly, it’s only Pattinson’s fourth biggest debut as a lead, since it’s behind all three “opened on a Friday” Twilight sequels ($142 million in 2009, $138 million in 2011 and $141 million in 2012). I know everyone likes to bag on the Twilight movies for “Eww… cooties!” reasons, but they earned $3.3 billion worldwide mostly sans 3-D or IMAX on a combined $419 million budget.

With an A- from Cinemascore, mostly strong reviews (85% and 7.7/10 from Rotten Tomatoes) and three weeks of absolutely no new competition, the skies look bright for Gotham. Worst-case-scenario, presuming the mere 45-day window does not cut into post-debut business, are legs like អាមេរិកប្រធានក្រុម: សង្រ្គាមស៊ីវិល ($409 million from a $179 million debut) or បុរស​ដែកថែប ($291 million/$128 million), which still gets Batman to $293 million. That would be fine on a Covid curve, especially since the $185 million Batman is cheaper than the $225 million បុរស​ដែកថែប. Legs on par with Captain Marvel ($427 million from a $154 million debut on this very weekend in 2019) gets Batman to $356 million, or ironically about tied with the $349-$382 million inflation-adjusted grosses of Batman v Superman, Batman Forever និង Batman ត្រឡប់.

One movie cannot hold up an entire theatrical industry, and the industry cannot thrive on Marvel/DC superhero movies alone. So, no, I’m not thrilled that Disney threw Pixar’s ងាកក្រហម to Disney+ while STX delayed ប្រតិបត្តិការសំណាង indefinitely. But Batman is surely doing its part to prevent another man-made stopgap in the slow theatrical recovery. Warner Bros,’ first theatrically exclusive release since ដេត in summer 2020 (and before that ផ្លូវត្រឡប់មកវិញ in March 2020) opened about as well as I’d expect for a “just another Batman movie” even in non-Covid/non-streaming times. Couple that with a global cume of $248.5 million, with little reason to presume a post-debut crash, and so far, so good. Looking at this as not the next Knight ដោយងងឹត ប៉ុន្តែបន្ទាប់ អង្គការ SPIDER របស់ Man: ការវិលត្រឡប់មកវិញ, Batman performed like a, well, bat out of hell.