Warner Bros./DC’s “The Batman” has reached the $300 million mark at the domestic box office as it has added $36.8 million in its third weekend, keeping it atop the box office charts.
With this result, “The Batman” is now in striking range of the domestic totals of “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” ($330 million) and “Aquaman” ($335 million) as it still has one more weekend with major premium format support before the release of Sony/Marvel’s “Morbius” on April 1.
The one blemish on the film’s numbers was its release in China this weekend, opening to just $12 million as it added $49 million from international markets. This weak opening is due in large part to the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in the country, which just reported its first deaths related to the virus in over a year. Because of the outbreak, 43% of cinemas are closed, including in major cities like Shanghai.
Despite this, “The Batman” will still cross the $600 million global mark on Monday and is on pace to pass the global runs of 2021 blockbusters like “F9” and “No Time to Die.” Unlike those films, which leaned more on overseas grosses, “The Batman” has seen its domestic/international split fall nearly even with $298 million overseas and $300 million in North America. This result is similar to fellow DC title “Wonder Woman,” which made $412.5 million of its $821 million global total domestically in 2017.
There was no doubt that “The Batman” would stay No. 1 this weekend, but Sony did land another hit with the release of the anime film “Jujutsu Kaisen 0,” which opened to an estimated $17.6 million from 2,336 theaters. The film is the first anime import released by Sony after the studio merged its two anime divisions, Crunchyroll and Funimation. All anime films released by Sony will now be released theatrically under the Crunchyroll banner.
In recent years, Funimation had carved out a niche for itself, releasing eight of the top 20 highest grossing anime films in the U.S. including “Demon Slayer: Mugen Train,” which set a non-English box office record with a $21 million opening.
The division adds to what has been a successful year at the box office for Sony despite the challenges of the pandemic with four films grossing over $100 million domestically. One of those films, “Uncharted,” came in third on this weekend’s charts with $8 million grossed in its fifth weekend, giving it a domestic total of $125 million.
Another one of those Sony films, the record-breaking “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” is on the doorstep of becoming just the third film ever to gross over $800 million in the U.S. Though it finally fell out of the top 5 in its 14th weekend in theaters, it now has a domestic total of $797.5 million with $3.2 million grossed this weekend. The film will join “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and “Avengers: Endgame” as the only blockbusters to hit this benchmark.
Back on the new release side, A24 went wide with Ti West’s slasher film “X,” which earned a $4.4 million opening from 2,865 theaters. The gory film has been praised by critics and horror buffs alike, earning a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. “X” opened at No. 4 on the charts just above MGM’s “Dog,” which earned $4.1 million in its fifth weekend for a total of $54.2 million.