Warner Bros. continues to fly high atop the March box office as “The Batman” earns its third No. 1 weekend with $10 million grossed on Friday and an estimated $39 million weekend total.
Earlier this week, “The Batman” became just the fifth Hollywood film in the past year to gross over $500 million worldwide and should pass the $300 million domestic mark and $600 million global mark by the end of this weekend.
While the new COVID-19 infection surge in China has closed over 25% of theaters in that country as “The Batman” opens there, the film is still on pace to surpass the theatrical runs of “F9” and “No Time to Die” and become only the second Hollywood film to gross over $800 million since the pandemic began. The other film, of course, is “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which only now has dropped out of the top 5 on the charts in its 14th weekend in theaters and with $1.87 billion grossed.
Part of the reason “No Way Home” was finally bumped out of the top 5 is because of the arrival of another Sony film: the anime import “Jujutsu Kaisen 0.” Distributed by Sony’s anime wing Crunchyroll — which merged with the studio’s other anime division Funimation earlier this month — “Jujutsu Kaisen” was expected to have a strong opening after another Sony anime import, “Demon Slayer: Mugen Train,” earned a non-English record $21 million opening last spring.
Sure enough, “Jujutsu Kaisen 0” has earned an opening day total of $8.6 million from 2,297 theaters — including $2.8 million from Thursday previews — with industry estimates projecting an opening weekend just a step below “Demon Slayer” at $19 million. Between Crunchyroll and Funimation, Sony has released eight of the top 20 highest grossing anime films in the U.S., and “Jujutsu Kaisen” is set to be their ninth.
Also opening this weekend is A24’s throwback slasher film “X,” which earned $1.7 million from 2,865 theaters on Friday and is estimated to earn a $4.3 million opening. Critics and horror buffs are praising its stylish grisliness with Rotten Tomatoes scores of 95% critics and 80% audience.
Among holdovers, Sony/Columbia’s “Uncharted” has added an estimated $8.7 million in its fifth weekend to put it in the No. 3 spot on the charts. MGM/FilmNation’s “Dog,” is neck-and-neck with “X” for the No. 4 spot with $4.3 million grossed in its fifth weekend.