‘The Batman’ Passes $600 Million Worldwide

The Batman is going to end up as one of the most successful “part one” superhero movies ever in domestic earnings.

Warner Bros. is reporting that not only did The Batman top $300 million domestic on Sunday, but it also passed $600 million worldwide. Matt Reeves and Peter Craig’s DC Comics flick is already the second biggest-grossing straight reboot domestically behind Spider-Man: Homecoming ($334 million) and fourth worldwide behind Man of Steel ($668 million), Amazing Spider-Man ($762 million) and Spider-Man: Homecoming ($881 million). Casino Royale has earned, depending on who you ask, $595 million or $616 million, but The Batman will be past both of those in two days anyway. It’ll pass Homecoming domestically and Man of Steel worldwide by next weekend, again showing that Batman and Spider-Man are among the two most popular marquee characters on the planet. The Batman is yet more evidence that, when you have got the right movie, theatrical exhibition and related box office/revenue behaves akin to pre-pandemic times.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is about to pass $800 million domestic and $1.85 billion worldwide while The Batman is about to become one of the biggest-grossing non-sequel superhero franchise launchers ever in unadjusted (or even adjusted) domestic grosses. If it gets past $407 million domestic, and that’s still possible (if not inevitable) right now, it’ll best the inflation-adjusted gross of Iron Man ($318 million in 2008) and stand behind only Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, The Hunger Games, Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel and Black Panther among such inflation-adjusted “first movie” offerings. While The Batman will pass the domestic gross of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse ($300.5 million in 2010) today to become Robert Pattinson’s biggest domestic grosser its overseas and global gross may not reach The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part II ($535 million overseas and $829 million worldwide).

As for where it goes from here, China is basically a lost cause ($11.7 million, thanks to 43% of theaters being closed due to a Covid resurgence and declining interest in Hollywood exports) and Japan will only be worth around $10 million (normal for solo DC non-sequels save for Joker which broke out with $46 million in 2019). Nonetheless, with around $90 million earned worldwide last weekend and a current $600.5 million global cume, normal rates of descent would give the $185 million flick an over/under $785 million global cume. That doesn’t mean that strong holds won’t push it past $800 million, but it again shows that A) it’s not going to hit $1 billion and B) doing so was never the bar for success. $740 million would already be quadruple its budget, while $832 million would be 4.5x the production costs.

Similarities to Batman Begins and Se7en were a commercial help rather than a commercial hindrance.

Warner Bros.’ The Batman is doing quite well despite being not all that different from Chris Nolan’s Batman Begins (with not a few plot threads borrowed from the director’s cut of Daredevil), and despite featuring villains (Penguin, Catwoman and Riddler) whom we’ve already seen onscreen before. Beyond the strong reviews, obvious IP value, lack of competition and increase in superhero pop culture dominance, the relative familiarity was perhaps not a hindrance but rather a help. In 2002, The Bourne Identity ($214 million plus sky-high DVD renal/sales) and xXx ($267 million) tried to break out/did break out because they were different from the norm and “new” in terms of what they offered to action/spy movie fans. In 2016/2017, Jason Bourne ($416 million) and xXx: Return of Xander Cage ($343 million) were commercially workable worldwide precisely because they were familiar and arguably redundant.

In that sense, Another Real-World, Mafia/Politicians-Centric Batman But Even Darker and Grittier played not just to cultural amnesia (Bruce Wayne does plenty of detective work in earlier Batman movies) but to the lure of nostalgia in these grim times. Ditto the explicit genre appropriation from films like Se7en and Saw, while also seeming fresh/unique to those less exposed to its fair game cinematic inspirations (like Klute). That’s not necessarily a criticism, as A) money is money, B) I at least liked The Batman more than the first Saw (however, Saw VI > The Batman) and C) I adore Return of Xander Cage. However, there’s a case to be made that the film’s (arguable) familiarity in terms of its more recent genre appropriations and in the Chris Nolan Dark Knight trilogy was not a metaphorical handicap but an implicit positive variable.

In other words, what I’d argue was The Batman’s biggest artistic deficit turned out to be among its biggest commercial boosts. That’s not the first time I’ve felt as much, as I’d argue the things that made me dislike It made it an ideal “kids first R-rated horror flick” breakout super-smash. And when you gross $700 million on a $37 million budget, well, who cares what Scott Mendelson thinks about it? But now that we’ve gotten a proverbial The Force Awakens out of his system, I damn well want to see Reeves’ Last Jedi. After all, to paraphrase another (momentarily successful) theatrical franchise reboot, The Batman has kept theatres afloat, given Warner Bros. a huge artistic and commercial win, revived their most vital IP and reset the narrative around the DC Comics/DC Films cinematic franchise. Next time, I challenge them to do better.