Batman-V-Superman-Trailer-Fight-Heat-Vision

From THR, the victory that WB so desperately needed after a fairly bleak 2015 has come, as the studio reports that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will be raking in an estimated $170.1 million dollars this weekend.

Snyder’s film, which currently stands at 29% on Rotten Tomatoes, defied its critics with the #6 all-time opening weekend, and the fourth best superhero opening behind The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Iron Man 3.

And while the numbers haven’t been made immediately available, its day and date release in China is expected to be equally large, giving this start to the DC movie-verse a big international boost as well.

The studio has quite a bit of catching up to do monetarily, as the film has a publicly announced $250 million dollar budget (before marketing), and many report that the actual total is quite higher than that. Either way, WB needed a big win here and they got it this weekend. How much will it hold for the 2nd weekend? A “B” Cinemascore from audience-goers isn’t a great sign, but it also has literally no competition for the next two weeks before The Jungle Book opens on April 15th.

I’d expect to see some pretty happy folks at the studio right now, and this likely secures Snyder’s Justice League April 11th start date.

13 COMMENTS

  1. Critics be damned! Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was great fun. I loved the Dark Knight Returns references from the comic book as well as those from the Doomsday comics. Yes, it’s over the top, but what do you expect? I didn’t have high hopes for this one, but they truly delivered. And Diana, Wonder Woman, kicked ass!

  2. The criticisms will likely only affect the movies staying power. The Hollywood Reporter indicated that more than 66 percent of ticket buyers were white, male and between the ages of 18-34. Only 6 percent were above the age of 44 and 3 percent over the age of 55.

    This was DC’s largest salvo, opening everywhere at the same time (including China) on a holiday weekend and the first big blockbuster of the year with no competition.

    I’m seeing fanboys talking about going 2, 3, sometimes 4 times during the weekend. That won’t keep up. That 29% RT rating, and other similar critical scores will likely eventually catch up with it.

    http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office-5-reasons-batman-878521

  3. Agreed, they’ve also adjusted down, so the final tally is actually 166.1 million. Friday to Sunday was a huge drop-off.

  4. Haven’t you heard that Marvel paid critics to pan this movie? That’s what fanboys are tweeting. They can’t imagine anyone honestly disliking any superhero movie. Fanboys don’t seem to have much contact with people outside their own bubble.

    At least this is a switch from the usual fanboy position, which is that critics PRETEND to dislike superhero movies in order to impress their “hip” friends.

    Film critic Matt Singer put it best, when he tweeted that “superhero fatigue” doesn’t mean critics think there should be fewer superhero movies. It means they want BETTER and MORE VARIED superhero movies.

  5. ” … more than 66 percent of ticket buyers were white, male and between the ages of 18-34.”

    Sounds like the demographics of DC’s readership! No wonder their sales are in the toilet, with such a narrow range of people buying their comics.

  6. “They can’t imagine anyone honestly disliking any superhero movie.”

    Batman v. Superman has its problems, like Cavil being a complete and utter dud, but it’s far better than a true disaster like Green Lantern. It does seem like there’s a bit of piling on here.

    Mike

  7. “It does seem like there’s a bit of piling on here.”

    Yeah, it’s hard to believe that people actually hate garbage movies, right?

  8. http://zharazhar.blogspot.co.id/2016/03/batman-v-superman-dawn-of-justice-movie.html
    It’s adult superhero movie every parent or adult people should reconsider themselves if they want to bring their children to watch this movie. Event for adult people themselves, it is uneasy to digest the messed up plot and story particularly for the casual viewers. It is inaccessible to them, they might don’t really understand some specific things, such as the opening movie scene that showed the closing moment of Man of Steal movie from Bruce Wayne’s perspective, the idea of the omega symbol during Bruce Wayne’s dream sequence which is a symbol of Darkseid. The one that explained by Lex Luthor in the end of the movie.

  9. “Yeah, it’s hard to believe that people actually hate garbage movies, right?”

    Everyone’s entitled to their opinion but I’ve seen plenty of garbage movies. Batman v. Superman isn’t one.

    Super-hero movies Batman v. Superman is better than, in no particular order…

    All Four Fantastic Four flicks.
    Hulk.
    The Incredible Hulk.
    Superman III.
    Superman IV.
    Batman Forever.
    Batman and Robin.
    Green Lantern.
    Blade Trinity.
    The Spirit.
    Daredevil.
    Spider-Man 3.
    The Amazing Spider-Man.
    The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
    Spawn.
    Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.
    Elektra.
    Steel.
    X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
    Catwoman.
    Supergirl.
    The Punisher (both versions)
    Judge Dredd.
    X-Men: The Last Stand.
    The Shadow.
    Hellboy II: The Golden Army.
    Superman Returns.
    All Crow movies after the first one.

    The abuse being heaped on Batman v. Superman has little to no connection to whether it’s any good or not.

    Mike

  10. I thought it was a not-bad movie. Nothing great, but not awful, either. It may have helped that I went with low expectations. I felt I got my money’s worth.

    Here is the most stupid comment I’ve read about the critical reception, from the Captain Comics website:

    “A lot of critics’ complaints boil down to the usual one: We don’t like superhero movies. We want them to fail so that nothing is made except for two-man indie movies with oblique dialogue.”

    This writer is guilty of what film critic Matt Zoller Seitz called “the phony populism that tells fans of certain genres they have wonderful taste and need not ever expand their horizons, except maybe to see an occasional Coen Brothers movie.”

    It also shows NO knowledge or understanding of what film critics actually do.

  11. A terrible, dour, boring mess of a film, and I don’t need to give you a list of other movies to justify my opinion.

Comments are closed.