Starting with $27.7 million on Thursday night it was clear that Warner Bros. had a much needed blockbuster on its hands, and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice did obliterate the March opening record of $152.2 million held by The Hunger Games. With a bloated production budget of at least $250 million, BvS had to have an opening like this, and it delivered in spite of poor reviews—it is currently at just 29% positive on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Readers of this column are familiar with my frequent comments about the “disconnect” between critics and audiences in many genre films, but reviews do matter somewhat, especially it seems, when it comes to blockbusters. BvS is the first film with a critical rating under 63% to open with over $150 million, and only five action movies have ever debuted over $100 million with review numbers under 30%. Still BvS delivered the fourth best opening ever for a superhero film, trailing just 3 Marvel movies (The Avengers, $207 million), Age of Ultron ($191.3 million), and Iron Man 3 ($174.1 million).
Batman v. Superman set another record by opening on over 40,000 screens in almost every major territory around the world and it brought in an estimated $254 million, the fifth largest overseas opening of all time—and the best ever for a superhero film (though to be fair, none of the previous superhero blockbusters had the advantage of opening in China where BvS took in a cool $57.3 million). Note that an amazing 59% of the foreign earnings of BvS came from 3-D showings (versus just 40% here in the States). On the domestic front BvS helped give IMAX its biggest Easter ever, while overseas the DC team-up movie posted the third best IMAX opening ever (behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Jurassic Park).
With a worldwide total of $424 million already, BvS appears to be a lock to earn more than a billion dollars at the box office before its run is over. The question is how much over a billion will it earn, and what sort of legacy does it leave for the next DC Comics entry in its cinematic duel with Marvel? Opening weekend audiences, which skewed male (66%) with 63% in the 18-34 age bracket gave the movie a mediocre "B" CinemaScore, with the important male demographic giving it a "B-."
With almost no new competition opening next weekend, BvS should have a good sophomore frame, though with such a huge opening, there will be a major drop. If BvS can keep the fall to 60% or less (Age of Ultron fell 59.4%), it will have to be considered a good hold, and it will help dispel any notions that BvS was the kind of frontloaded event movie that could actually have a negative effect on its sequels.
The jury may be out on BvS’s longevity, but Disney’s Zootopia certainly has “legs.” It is fourth weekend in theaters the original animated feature dropped just 37.7% as it added $23 million, giving it a domestic total of $240.6 million. Overseas it added $42.5 million for a current global cumulative of $696.7 million.
Third place went to Universal’s clever bit of counterprogramming, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, which over-performed with a potent $18 million opening. Scripted by Nia Vardalos, who also starred in the movie, the first Big Fat Greek Wedding film debuted with just under 600k fourteen years ago, but went on to run for a year and earn over $241 million at the domestic box office. Such a performance is unlikely to ever be repeated again, but My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 is, nevertheless, off to a very good start. No surprise, opening weekend audiences skewed heavily female (73%), but the good news for Universal is that the gave the movie a solid “A-“ CinemaScore, which could augur a nice box office run, though there are a number of comedies set to release in April that could prove to be formidable competiton.
Sony’s religiously-themed Miracles From Heaven also fared well, dropping just 35.9% as it earned $9.5 million, bringing its cumulative to $34.1 million and insuring that the production was already in the black.
The news was much different for Lionsgate’s The Divergent Series: Allegiant, which tumbled 67.3% from its less-than-inspiring debut, earning an estimated $9.5 million (the final disposition of 4th place on the chart will have to wait until final figures are in tomorrow).
Fox’s Deadpool, which remains the top domestic 2016 release so far, slipped just 37.6% as it earned $5 million and brought its North American total to $349.5 million. Given BvS’s $170 million opening it would appear likely that the DC team-up movie will easily top the Merc with a Mouth’s domestic earnings, but let’s wait a couple of weeks and see how things pan out.
Be sure to check back here next weekend to check the box office progress of Batman v. Superman, which will face no new direct competition with only the religiously-themed God’s Not Dead 2 opening in more than 2,000 theaters.