Warner Bros./DC’s “The Batman” is continuing its red-hot performance at the box office, adding $18.7 million on its second Friday, with domestic totals set to pass $225 million by the end of Sunday.
Though the Friday-to-Friday drop is 67% due to strong preview and opening day numbers, “The Batman” has a good chance of holding its weekend drop to below 55% of its $134 million opening weekend. That would mark one of the best second weekend holds for any film since theaters reopened and the best for any DC film featuring Batman since “The Dark Knight” in 2008.
This result will also mean “The Batman” will become Warner Bros.’ highest grossing theatrical release since theaters reopened after the COVID-19 pandemic began, having eclipsed the $400 million global theatrical run of “Dune” in just eight days of domestic release and soon topping the $468 million global run of “Godzilla vs. Kong.”
“The Batman” is now on its way to becoming one of the highest grossing post-shutdown releases of any studio, fueled by the strong word-of-mouth for the return of DC’s most popular character and its status as Warner’s first theatrically exclusive title following last year’s HBO Max day-and-date experiment. When it crosses $500 million worldwide, “The Batman” will become just the eighth COVID era release — and the fifth from a Hollywood studio — to pass that mark.
Meanwhile, Sony’s “Uncharted” continues to hold respectably in the face of tough competition from “The Batman,” adding $2.4 million on its fourth Friday with a projected weekend total of $9 million. That brings the domestic total for the Playstation adaptation to $113 million as it draws closer to the $129 million total earned by fellow Sony film “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” late last year.
This weekend has no major new releases after Pixar’s “Turning Red” was pulled from theaters for an exclusive release on Disney+. Though most films released for streaming have a significantly lower marketing budget, Disney has given Domee Shi’s feature directorial debut a full theatrical-level marketing campaign following the success of past Pixar streaming exclusives “Soul” and “Luca” on Disney+, as well as the increased attention towards Disney Animation’s “Encanto” after it completed a month of theatrical exclusivity and was released on streaming at Christmas.
“Encanto” and Universal’s theatrically exclusive “Sing 2” both passed $100 million in domestic grosses, but fell well short of pre-pandemic animated releases. Theaters have not seen a family film since those titles were released and won’t until Paramount opens “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” on April 8.