In last weekend's box office column, my primary focus went to the fact that Matt Reeves' The Batman had earned over $200 million at the domestic box office – a significant feat given that only five other movies have managed to reach that milestone since January 2020. Exactly one week later, film fans can now celebrate the fact that the blockbuster has managed to pass an even rarer milestone, as the feature is now one of only two mid-pandemic releases to earn over $300 million in the United States and Canada.
Check out the full Top 10 below, and join me after for analysis!
| TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. The Batman | $36,800,000 | $300,090,872 | 1 | 4,302 |
| 2. Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie* | $17,698,677 | $17,698,677 | Row 1 - Cell 3 | 2,286 |
| 3. Uncharted | $8,000,000 | $125,895,357 | 2 | 3,700 |
| 4. X* | $4,407,750 | $4,407,750 | Row 3 - Cell 3 | 2,865 |
| 5. Dog | $4,096,419 | $54,227,992 | 4 | 3,307 |
| 6. Spider-Man: No Way Home | $3,200,000 | $797,543,553 | 5 | 2,585 |
| 7. Death On The Nile | $1,700,000 | $43,574,499 | 6 | 2,050 |
| 8. The Outfit* | $1,510,000 | $1,510,000 | Row 7 - Cell 3 | 1,324 |
| 9. The Kashmir Files* | $1,485,000 | $1,485,000 | Row 8 - Cell 3 | 230 |
| 10. Sing 2 | $1,480,000 | $158,470,040 | 8 | 1,838 |
The Batman Joins Spider-Man: No Way Home In The Exclusive $300 Million Club Domestically
Last December, Jon Watts' Spider-Man: No Way Home was the first blockbuster since the start of the pandemic to make $300 million domestically – reaching that impressive number in just five days (just two days slower than the all-time record holder, Joe and Anthony Russo's Avengers: Endgame). The Batman has taken a little bit longer to get to that milestone (17 days, to be exact), but the fact alone that it has made that much money is big news for the industry.
Prior to the release of the latest Spider-Man movie, no film released since the start of the pandemic came even close to earning north of $300 million, with Destin Daniel Cretton's Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings sitting at the top of the domestic charts having completed its theatrical run making $224.5 at home. After the last four months, however, a new concept of what's possible has formed, and it has studios and theaters keeping fingers crossed that the industry will continue to grow and see more success going forward.
Sadly, we're still not living in a world where anything other than a sequel and/or a blockbuster spectacle is going to be earning over nine figures, and it's not exactly surprising that two of the biggest IPs in the world – Spider-Man and Batman – have been setting theatrical records. In an ideal world, though, these kinds of titles will remind audiences of the magic that is watching a movie (any movie) on the big screen, and cinephiles around the globe will flock to all of the most exciting titles that are set to come out in the coming weeks and months.
Worldwide, The Batman is getting exceptionally close to breaking into another exceptionally small group, as the film is presently just a couple million short of joining the $600 million club. When it eventually reaches that benchmark, it will be only the fourth movie featuring the Caped Crusader in a prominent role to do so (meaning David Ayer's Suicide Squad and Todd Phillips' Joker don't count).
It's a club that exclusively consists of the last two Christopher movies of the Dark Knight Trilogy (The Dark Knight Rises and The Dark Knight) and Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. How much further up the rankings the Robert Pattinson film will climb is unclear, principally because it will have to make a hell of a lot more money to continue jumping up the ladder. If it wishes to jump to third place, it's going to need to make about $275 million more than its present total – which might not be super doable given that the release is off to a slower-than-expected start in China.
With a weekend-to-weekend drop of just 45 percent compared to the last Friday-to-Sunday, fans are definitely still excited about The Batman, and in its third week of release it is still making more than double the amount of money as its competitors. That being said, the competition from other major studios hasn't been exactly overwhelming.
Next weekend will be an interesting challenge for the Matt Reeves movie, as it will be going head-to-head with a big A-lister new release for the first time in the form of Aaron and Adam Nee's The Lost City, starring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum. Will the romantic action film steal all attention away, or will Gotham's protector hold its own?
Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie Is Another Big Anime Success
As you can see on the chart, there wasn't a single new Hollywood-produced film put out in wide release (a.k.a. over 2,000 locations) this past Friday, but that has opened the door for another success story from FUNimation – which has released Seong-Hu Park's Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie.
Last year, the anime distributor had two big box office wins with Haruo Sotozaki's Demon Slayer The Movie: Mugen Train and Kenji Nagasaki's My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission – both landing in the Top 5 of the domestic charts during their respective opening weekends (the former even managing to outgross Simon McQuoid's Mortal Kombat in its opening weekend). Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie wasn't quite able to match the numbers put up by the former, making about $6 million less in its first three days of release in North America, but it's a win regardless.
Of course, the money that Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie makes domestically is really just icing on the cake for the release. Globally, the film has already made $147.5 million, with $118 million of that money coming from its earnings in Japan alone.
X, The Outfit, And Umma Don't Exactly Make A Big Splash At The Box Office
You'll note that I specified a lack of direct competition for The Batman in wide release this past weekend, as Hollywood studios did put out a trio of smaller films in limited theaters... but they didn't exactly dominate the market. I'm specifically referencing Ti West's X, Graham Moore's The Outfit, and Iris K. Shim's Umma (which landed outside of the Top 10, making just $225,000 playing in 805 locations).
It's a disappointing circumstance, if not especially because both X and The Outfit rode into theaters on huge waves of buzz. Following premieres on the film festival circuit, both movies presently sport Rotten Tomatoes scores over 90 percent with more than 100 reviews counted. That acclaim didn't manage to turn into immediate financial success, though, as, according to The Numbers, they managed to only make $4.4 million and $1.5 million respectively in their first few days of release.
The silver lining is that the positive word of mouth surrounding both will likely keep them in conversation for the rest of 2022, and that could ultimately result in some solid digital sales and streaming numbers – but it's still disappointing to not see the smaller titles do better.
As noted earlier, coming up this Friday we will see the release of The Lost City, which will hopefully add a nice spark to the big screen world. Be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday to see how it performs in its opening weekend, and check out our 2022 Movie Release Calendar to discover all of the big titles coming out between now and the end of the year.
