The bat signal lit up the box office on Thursday.
There’s no fatigue when it comes to DC and Warners’ premiere superhero brand, it seems: The Batman swooped in on a super $21.6 million in previews on Thursday, a grand showing for the Matt Reeves’ and Robert Pattinson’s gritty take on the Caped Crusader. That’s more than The Dark Knight ($18.5 million), Justice League ($13 million), and Wonder Woman ($11 million), but the grappling hook came a little short of Batman v. Superman ($27.7 million) and Dark Knight Rises ($30.6 million).
It’s not quite Spider-Man: No Way Home numbers, with Marvels’ own flagship super still reigning champ, but for a near three-hour movie… well, Warners will be more than pleased.
Reception to the Pattinson starrer has been strong across the board, accruing a strong 73 score on Metacritic among critics, and an 8.7 user rating at this time of writing. Neither are quite as strong as The Dark Knight, still broadly considered to be the best Batman flick of them all, but it does compare favorably to fellow franchise starter Batman Begins, with a 70 critic and 8.6 user rating, respectively. In our write-up, Ross Bonaime called it the “best bat-movie since The Dark Knight,” elaborating in his B+ review: “Still, Reeves has made the best Batman film since The Dark Knight, with a captivating and rich world that reinvigorates characters we’ve already seen on screen over and over again.”
With such a strong response between audiences and critics, one can expect word of mouth on The Batman to push it into strong opening weekend figures, despite its long runtime and continuing — albeit fading — concerns around Covid. Variety notes that the Bat noir is eyeing a weekend debut of “$100 million of more, buoyed by good reviews and interest in Robert Pattinson’s take on the title role”. The one-time Twilight heartthrob, a favorite of tweens across the globe, has readily established his leading man bona fides over the past half-decade, with starring roles in acclaimed indies like Good Time, The Lighthouse and Claire Denis’ High Life.
Still, it was a big bet for Warner to put Pattinson in the cape and cowl of their most iconic hero: most commercial audiences will go into The Batman still recognizing him from Twilight, a franchise once maligned by the male-skewing demographic that are expected to turn out for the World’s Greatest Detective. It’s great news for Pattinson, either way, who Parasite director Bong Joon-ho recently confirmed to be in preliminary talks to star in the director’s hotly anticipated next film.
The Batman is in theaters now. It also stars Paul Dano, Zoe Kravitz, Andy Serkis, and Colin Farrell.
(collider.com)
