As the traditional blockbuster movie season of the summer has become overstuffed with releases, we’ve slowly begun to see other films stake claims on the non-summer months. Star Wars: The Force Awakens broke every box office record that the month of December had to break. Now, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will be looking to do something similar in the month of March. They do have a bit of competition however. To have the biggest March opening weekend ever, they’ll have to do over $150 million in business.
The current record for the biggest opening in March is held by The Hunger Games at $152.5 million. While not outside the realm of possibility, according to Deadline, most analysts currently have Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice tracking toward an opening somewhere between $100 million on the low end, and $140 million on the high side, so Dawn of Justice will need to exceed expectations if they want to set the record.
Predicting movie openings seems to be more art than science so it’s difficult to guess at this point where things will end up, though certainly, as we get closer to release, estimates should become more accurate. Man of Steel saw an opening weekend of $116.6 million in June. Even if Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was only able to match that, it would beat out the current number two movie for March, Disney’s Alice in Wonderland. With the added power of Batman and Wonder Woman that this film has, it’s likely that they will exceed that total.
Quite a bit is riding on the success of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Warner Brothers is certainly looking for a smash hit. If, for some reason, it doesn’t exceed the Man of Steel numbers, the studio will likely see it as a failure (as crazy as that sounds). Ben Affleck has spoken about how much pressure there is for the film to do well. With Suicide Squad ready to go later this summer, the Wonder Woman solo project currently filming, and the first part of Justice League scheduled to get underway around the time that Batman v Superman debuts, the studio has already put a lot of money toward building this universe. If for some reason results don’t come, who knows what will happen?
Are you planning to buy tickets in advance and get in line for a midnight screening, or are you going to wait for reviews and word of mouth to tell you if Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is any good? Let us know your thoughts below.
