‘The Batman’ posted a commendable $128.5m (£98m/€118m) on its debut weekend across 4,417 North American cinemas.
It is the best opening weekend for cinema ticket sales in the US in 2022, and is only the second pandemic-era film to post more than $100m in one weekend, after ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ was released in December.
‘The Batman’ further grossed $120m internationally, taking its opening weekend total to $248.5m.
In the UK, ‘The Batman’ – which was filmed in locations such as Liverpool, Glasgow and London – is being heralded as the start of a box office boom.
According to an article from the Guardian, box office sales in the UK are forecast to top £1bn for the first time since 2019.
‘James Bond: No Time to Die’ provided the UK with its biggest October in box office history, while internationally, ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ has taken $1.8bn in box office ticket sales, making it the sixth highest-grossing film of all time.
The UK is now without any coronavirus restrictions, meaning film lovers have been gradually returning to the cinema.
David Hancock, film analyst at London-based analyst and consultancy firm Omdia, told the Guardian: “The huge success of Bond and Spiderman proved that cinema is back, but both did it within COVID when cinemagoing was not considered to be back to normal conditions.
“We will be judging ‘Batman’ as the first ‘post-COVID film’, if you like, on its pure merits. The hesitancy to return to cinema and the rush when fans starved of big new releases were actually able to see one are not factors. The question for ‘Batman’ is simple, will people like it, and that is how films should be judged.”
While production company Warner Brothers pulled the film from being shown in Russia, international box office ticket sales for The Batman will only get stronger as it is set to debut in Japan and China in the coming weeks.
Image: ActionVance on Unsplash