The Caped Crusader is still money in the bank.
“The Batman,” starring Robert Pattinson as Gotham City’s crime fighter, collected $128.5 million in its domestic box office debut, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
It was the second-best opening in the pandemic, trailing only last year’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” the entertainment outlet reported. The “Spider-Man” movie pulled in a historic $260 million when it opened in December 2021, Variety reported.
Warner Bros., which paid $200 million to produce the film, will screen the movie of the comic book hero exclusively in theaters before adding it to HBO Max in 45 days, the entertainment outlet reported.
“You to buy into the idea that Batman is like Hamlet. He’s such a rich character. And that the only reason to do it is if you find a different swim lane and a Batman that’s true to the DNA, but is a different interpretation,” Toby Emmerich, president of Warner Bros. Motion Pictures, told The Hollywood Reporter. “From the very beginning, Matt consciously made sure that the character and the story he was telling was different than anyone that had been told before.”
“The Batman,” directed by Matt Reeves, grabbed a PG-13 rating instead of an R, which will help the film capture the key demographic of younger males, Variety reported.
The film focuses on Bruce Wayne’s earlier days of fighting crime and contains a rogues’ gallery of familiar Batman foes, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
In addition to Pattinson, “The Batman” stars Paul Dano as the Riddler, Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, Andy Serkis as Batman’s butler Alfred Pennyworth, and Colin Farrell as the Penguin.