‘The Batman’ Keeps Gliding as Box Office Leader in Second Weekend

variety.com:

J. Kim Murphy With no major new wide releases for the weekend, Warner Bros.’ “The Batman” has an easy path to repeating its top performance at the domestic box office.

The DC adaptation grossed an additional $18.7 million on Friday from 4,417 locations, more than enough to maintain the No. 1 position on box office charts.That performance represents a 67% drop-off from the film’s $57 million opening day, though that debut figure also includes $21.6 million from Thursday preview screenings populated by eager fans.Last weekend, “The Batman” bested box office predictions in its debut, raking in $134 million.

Its ticket sales ranked as the best of 2022 so far, and it became the second pandemic-era theatrical release to cross the $100 million mark in its first weekend, after “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” Starring Robert Pattinson as a moody Bruce Wayne, it’s likely that “The Batman” will continue to dominate domestic charts until another superhero epic, Sony’s “Morbius,” premieres on April 1.

The dark take on the superhero has earned very positive reviews, with Variety‘s 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.”Besides Pattinson, the film also stars Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, Paul Dano as the Riddler, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth and Colin Farrell as the Penguin.