A film making over $200 million at the domestic box office has become a big deal in the last few years. While 2019 saw a total of 11 movies cross that particular milestone, the pandemic has now turned that previously relatively mundane feat into a rare one. Since 2020, only five movies have managed to make that much money in the United States and Canada alone, and this past weekend Matt Reeves' The Batman became a part of that special club thanks to a solid sophomore performance after its debut earlier this month.
Check out the full Top 10 in the chart below, and join me after for analysis!
| TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. The Batman | $66,000,000 | $238,520,826 | 1 | 4,417 |
| 2. Uncharted | $9,250,000 | $113,355,790 | 2 | 3,725 |
| 3. BTS Permission To Dance On Stage - Seoul* | $6,840,000 | $6,840,000 | Row 2 - Cell 3 | 803 |
| 4. Dog | $5,346,376 | $47,803,478 | 3 | 3,407 |
| 5. Spider-Man: No Way Home | $4,075,000 | $792,285,954 | 4 | 2,702 |
| 6. Death On The Nile | $2,500,000 | $40,796,574 | 5 | 2,450 |
| 7. Sing 2 | $1,580,000 | $155,825,000 | 6 | 1,988 |
| 8. Jackass Forever | $1,099,813 | $56,281,000 | 7 | 1,627 |
| 9. Scream | $444,711 | $80,905,000 | 9 | 664 |
| 10. Cyrano | $390,547 | $3,321,279 | 8 | 694 |
The Batman Drops 51 Percent In Its Second Week As It Claims Its Second Box Office Crown
Earlier this month, The Batman had the second best opening weekend of any film since the start of the pandemic (behind only Jon Watts' Spider-Man: No Way Home), and it has followed up that spectacular start with a solid performance in its sophomore weekend. After making an impressive $134 million in its debut – which ended up being significantly higher than early estimates – the comic book blockbuster added another $66 million to its domestic total in the last three days.
As noted earlier, the fact that The Batman has made $238.5 million domestically means that it is already breathing rarified air compared to most blockbusters since the start of the pandemic. Bilall Fallah and Adil El Arbi's Bad Boys For Life, which came out before COVID-19 hit the United States, was the only movie from 2020 to make over $200 million domestically, and last year the only movies that managed to do it were Spider-Man: No Way Home, Destin Daniel Cretton's Shang-Chi- And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, and Andy Serkis' Venom: Let There Be Carnage.
Franchise-wise, The Batman has also made some significant climbs in the box office rankings of Caped Crusader features. With all of the money the blockbuster made in the last seven days domestically, it is now the fifth most successful movie ever featuring Gotham's protector in a lead role (a.k.a. not counting David Ayer's Suicide Squad or Todd Phillips' Joker). Its present total means it has now already outgrossed Zack Snyder's Justice League ($229 million), Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins ($205.3 million), and Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever ($184 million).
Of course, it's not just in the United States and Canada that The Batman is making money, as it is also doing quite well overseas. According to The Numbers, foreign markets have contributed $145.7 million to its global box office total, bringing its worldwide box office earnings thus far to a stately $384.2 million. Given that the movie had a budget of $200 million without accounting for publicity and marketing costs, the film probably hasn't broken even just yet for Warner Bros., but it is well on its way.
In 2022, The Batman is now the third highest grossing movie worldwide behind two massive Chinese films: Xing Wenxiong's Too Cool To Kill (which has made $406 million) and Dante Lam's The Battle At Lake Changjin II ($628.1 million).
Looking at the chart above, it should be clear that one of the reasons why The Batman was so successful in its second week is because it had relatively no competition. Hollywood did put out two big new titles this weekend, namely Domee Shi's Turning Red and Shawn Levy's The Adam Project, but both were released as streaming exclusives, meaning that they weren't stealing attention from the DC film at the cineplex.
Truth be told, the industry doesn't have another "big" title coming out until March 25 – namely Aaron and Adam Nee's The Lost City starring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum – so it's pretty easy to expect that The Batman will dominate the market until that movie hits theaters.
Both Uncharted And Dog Are Holding Strong Behind The Batman With Some Incredibly Small Weekend-To-Weekend Dips
Clearly The Batman is doing well with a lack of new big screen competition, but it isn't alone in that regard. Ruben Fleischer's Uncharted and Channing Tatum and Reid Carolin's Dog are also doing quite well while holding strong inside the Top 5.
After having crossed $100 million domestically last weekend, Uncharted added another $9.3 million to its gross in the last three days, marking an impressive 17 percent dip compared to the $11.1 million it made during The Batman's debut. The video game blockbuster may not be quite as popular as Matt Reeves' comic book adaptation, but it is performing well enough that it's shocking Sony has not yet officially announced development of an Uncharted 2.
Dog is arguably the more impressive success story, however. According to Variety, the road trip movie featuring Channing Tatum and a canine companion was made with just a $15 million budget, and by the end of the film's theatrical run it may end up quadrupling that number. To date it has made $53.5 million globally, and the additional $5.3 million it made in the last three days represents just a 13 percent drop from last weekend. It's shaping up to be one of the best cinematic success stories of the year.
A BTS Concert Event Also Puts Up Some Solid Big Screen Numbers
Domestic theaters saw exactly zero new movies arrive in wide release this past weekend, but at least one new title did play on the big screen – albeit only in 803 locations. This past Saturday, cinemas hosted screenings of BTS Permission to Dance on Stage - Seoul, which was a broadcast of a live concert put on by the titular, exceptionally popular K-pop boy band. The event ended up brining in $6.8 million in ticket sales – a $8,518 per theater average – which is impressive. That being said, because of the "live" nature of the event, it won't be a continuing presence in multiplexes.
Looking ahead to next week, both Graham Moore's thriller The Outfit and Iris Shim's horror feature Umma are going to be hitting theaters, and while they aren't precisely massive blockbusters, it will be interesting to see what kind of impact they will be able to make on the box office.
Be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday for a full breakdown of the numbers, and check out our 2022 Movie Release Calendar to discover everything that is on the way feature-wise for the rest of the year.
