Box Office: ‘The Batman’ Strikes Again With Third Weekend on Top, ‘Jujutsu Kaisen 0’ Lands at No. 2

variety.com:

J. Kim Murphy It was another easy pathway to the top slot at the domestic box office for “The Batman.” Now in its third weekend, the Warner Bros.

release continues to hold remarkably well, grossing $10.6 million on Friday from 4,302 locations, which marks a 43% drop from its sophomore outing.

The film is projected to expand its domestic cume by about $39 million through the weekend.“The Batman” should surpass a total domestic gross of $300 million by Monday, becoming only the second pandemic era release to do so after “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” Its stellar opening of $134 million and lean week-to-week drops have made the Robert Pattinson-led film the highest-grossing movie of 2022 thus far, and the second-highest grossing film since the COVID-19 pandemic began — again, topped only by “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” The dark take on the superhero has earned very positive reviews, with Variety‘s chief film critic Peter Debruge naming it a critic’s pick and writing that the “grounded, frequently brutal and nearly three-hour film noir registers among the best of the genre, even if — or more aptly, because — what makes the film so great is its willingness to dismantle and interrogate the very concept of superheroes.” What’s more, the film drew a Cinema Score rating of “A-,” indicating strong overall reception from general ticket buyers.Besides Pattinson as a grumpy volcel Bruce Wayne, the film also stars Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, Paul Dano as a logged-on version of the Riddler, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth and Colin Farrell as the freakin’ Penguin.

Directed by Matt Reeves, the production proved to be a prolonged one due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a production budget ballooning past $200 million.