“The Batman” is nearing a significant box office milestone.
The newest superhero adventure, starring Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader, has generated $463 million globally, putting the Warner Bros. film within striking distance of $500 million, an important benchmark given its $200 million price tag. In non-COVID times, half-a-billion dollars would be an expected and relatively insignificant threshold for a big-budget comic book adventure. That’s especially true for a movie based on one of the most well known Spandexed heroes around.
But since the pandemic, only four Hollywood movies — “Spider-Man: No Way Home” ($1.86 billion), “No Time to Die” ($774 million), “F9: The Fast Saga” ($726 million) and “Venom: Let There be Carnage” ($502 million) — in total were able to crack that mark globally. Even though Hollywood has resumed releasing major movies, attendance has not returned to pre-COVID levels.
Yet audiences have been turning out in force to see “The Batman,” which co-stars Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman and Paul Dano as the Riddler. Directed by Matt Reeves, the three-hour-long film takes a grim, gritty look at Bruce Wayne’s earlier days as “the world’s greatest detective.”
Over the weekend, “The Batman” added another $66.6 million international and $66 million domestically. Those revenues bring the film’s tally to $224.7 million overseas and $238.5 million in North America.
“The Batman” opened this weekend in Japan with $3.2 million, enough for the No. 1 spot. Outside of North America, the top-earning territories are United Kingdom ($35 million), Mexico ($20.2 million) and Australia ($16.7 million). The movie opens next Friday in China.
Elsewhere, HYBE and Trafalgar Releasing brought the “BTS Permission to Dance on Stage: Seoul” concert to movie theaters across the world to blockbuster results. At the global box office, the limited engagement event raked in $32.6 million from 3,711 cinemas in 75 theatrical markets.
Also new to theaters, Disney released the animated coming-of-age Pixar movie “Turning Red” in 12 markets, earning a scant $3.8 million. The well-reviewed film is only playing in territories where Disney Plus is not available.
Among holdovers, Sony’s video game adaptation collected $11.2 million from 64 international markets, taking its overseas total to $187.9 million. The film, which stars Tom Holland as treasure hunter Nathan Drake, has grossed an impressive $301.3 million to date.