Batman v Superman News Update: Warner Bros Records Highest Domestic Opening With a $170 Million Debut
"Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" created history during the Easter Sunday weekend by drawing in a record $170 million dollars, which is the highest debut a Warner Bros movie has received so far.
The recorded amount is higher than the predictions made by analysts and critics, before and after the release of the movie, saving Warner Bros from a recent drop in finances.
Warner Bros. considers this a successful start to Chairman Kevin Tsujihara's five year plan to make 10 big budget Justice League superhero movies, which will win not only at the box office level, but also through on-demand and TV rights. The Wrap reported, distribution chief Jeff Goldstein saying that it is a great feeling to see the strategy work. The rollout for the move included 4,242 theatres with an average of $40,000 collected per location, on average for the film.
Overtaking the major competition this weekend, Batman v Superman drew in a heterogeneous crowd and satisfied both young fans and older movie goers who grew up reading the comics. Both Disney's 'Zootopia' and 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2' garnered good responses, but came short of the debut made by Batman v Superman. The crowd was recorded to be 62 percent male, 22 percent under 18 years of age, 40 percent under 25 and 60 percent over 25.
As per records, the low film ratings given by the film critics were refuted by the audience. CinemaScore gave the movie a 'B' while Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic recorded only 30% and 44% positive responses respectively. Similar ratings were recorded by the sites for movies like "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2' as well where the audience gave the movie higher ratings than the critics did.
With "Suicide Squad" coming out in August and a Wonder Woman stand alone scheduled for a June 2017 release, Warner Bros is optimistic about the future of their Justice League strategy after this massive success.
