Fresh off six Oscars for Dune (most of which were conveniently awarded during a non-televised portion of ABC’s Academy Awards telecast), a Best Actor win for Will Smith in King Richard (which was earned and deserved no matter his behavior during the ceremony) and, uh, a “Fan Cheer” award for Zack Snyder’s Justice League, The Batman has earned another $1.6 million in domestic earnings. That brings its domestic total after 25 days to $333.6 million. As noted on Sunday, the film passed the $312-$330 million likes of Iron Man 2, Iron Man, Deadpool 2, Thor: Ragnarok, Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman over the weekend. Over the next day or two, it’ll pass the $334-$336 million likes of Guardians of the Galaxy, Joker, Aquaman and Spider-Man 3. However, it passed two other relative box office benchmarks on Sunday.
First, with $673 million in global box office, it has sailed past The Battle At Lake Changjin ($634 million, almost entirely from China) to become the year’s biggest worldwide grosser. I don’t know what China has in the can over the next few months, but I’d wager that The Batman will remain this year’s biggest global grosser at least until mid-May if not mid-June. All due respect, but Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Morbius and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore would be thrilled, especially on a Covid curve, to get anywhere near the $505 million (sans China) gross of Venom: Let There Be Carnage. So can Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness outgross The Batman’s probable (it earned $45 million global last weekend and should pass $700 million worldwide by Sunday night) final gross of $760-$775 million?
Look, it’s a Marvel summer kick-off movie, it’s quite anticipated, it’s allegedly filled with fan-friendly cameos and multiverse bonuses and it’s in a position to be sold as the real Phase Four season premiere and the first real-deal sequel to Avengers: Endgame, fittingly arriving three years after the “Infinity Saga” finale. That said, Doctor Strange earned $677 million in late 2016 and even Thor: Ragnarok and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 earned $854 million and $863 million in 2017. Heck, Ant-Man and the Wasp followed Black Panther ($1.346 billion) and Avengers: Infinity War ($2.048 billion) and still “only” grossed $620 million global, including a then-huge (for a solo superhero movie) $125 million in China. You take out China (which brought $100-$112 million to Doctor Strange, Thor 3 and Guardians 2 respectively) and it’s a closer fight.
Betting against a “mythology episode” of the MCU is a fool’s errand. Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which co-stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen, may struggle to crack $1 billion without China but should earn enough so that it’s not a grudge match (among Covid-era blockbusters) between itself, The Batman and last year’s $774 million-grossing No Time to Die. But if Doctor Strange 2 ends up with less than The Batman, not a deal-breaker provided it still grosses a bunch with decent reviews/reception, then it’ll be up to Universal’s Jurassic World: Dominion. Sure, Fallen Kingdom earned $267 billion in China in 2018, but A) JW3 might still play well there and B) it earned $1.041 billion, including $416 million domestic, without China. Universal’s Jurassic World threequel remains the summer’s most likely $1 billion grosser.
Second, The Batman raised its overseas box office total to $342 million over the weekend, right between (among WB’s biggest Covid-era releases) Tenet ($305 million) and Godzilla Vs. Kong ($368 million). That also gives Matt Reeves and Peter Craig’s $185 million, three-hour detective actioner a 49/51 domestic/overseas split. That’s a genuine rarity for the Batman franchise. As regular readers know, Batman ($251 million domestic and $411 million worldwide), Batman Returns ($162 million/$266 million), Batman Forever ($184 million/$336 million), Batman Begins ($205 million/$372 million) and The Dark Knight ($533 million/$1.004 billion) all earned at least 50% of their global grosses in North America. Batman & Robin earned 55% of its $238 million global gross overseas, but it was still a flop on a $125 million budget. Yes, The LEGO Batman Movie earned $176 million domestic and $312 million worldwide.
Even in 2008, with everything going right, The Dark Knight earned $471 million outside of North America, or $5 million less than Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and just $5 million more than Mamma Mia! With one exception, the only Dark Knight flicks that earned a majority of their money overseas were ensemble movies like Batman v Superman ($330 million/$873 million), Justice League ($226 million/$659 million) and (if you want to count it) Suicide Squad ($325 million/$725 million without China). Until this past Sunday, The Dark Knight Rises was the sole solo Batman movie to have been a hit while also earning at least 51% of its global gross outside of North America. The Chris Nolan sequel earned $448 million domestic and $1.084 billion worldwide in summer 2012, including a then-huge $53 million in China.
Yes, it’s possible that the split will skew back toward North America, especially if (ironically) Fantastic Beasts 3 plays well overseas even amid another possible (likely?) domestic drop. But, yeah, The Batman is the biggest-grossing movie of 2022, a title it will likely keep until early-to-mid summer as it almost certainly remains in the top five by summer’s end even if Doctor Strange 2, Jurassic World 3, Minions 2 and Thor 4 play to best-case-scenario box office. Come what may, The Batman is about to pass Spider-Man: Homecoming ($334 million) as the biggest-grossing straight reboot in North America, although the MCU Spidey’s $881 million global debut seems a bridge too far. But WB got what they wanted, a critically-acclaimed and consumer-approved Batman franchise. Maybe they can use The Flash to make him part of the DCEU after all.
