By Chris Kavan - 03/09/22 at 11:03 AM CT
The box office finally has another blockbuster (no knock to Uncharted) and the MPAA ratings board keeps chugging right along. But the big news was the opening for The Batman the grimdark, Fincher-like superhero was a big hit and looks to make March its own.
What happens when you make Bruce Wayne an emo, the Riddler a serial killer and turn Colin Farrell into an unrecognizable crime boss - oh, and a nearly three-hour run time? Well, you get The Batman - and you get a huge opening - to the tune of $134 million (even better than the early reports of $128.5 million). That is the second-best opening of the pandemic era behind only Spider-Man: No Way Home's astronomical $260.1 million opening. The film was also a hit with critics, at 85% Fresh and audiences, who awarded it an "A-" Cinemeascore. Surprising no one, the vast majority of the audience was male at 65% with 60% of said audience coming in between 18-34 years of age. The film features Robert Pattinson as a young and quite emo Batman and also features Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Jeffrey Wright as Lt. Jim Gordon, Paul Dano playing the scary Riddler, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone and Andy Serkis as the loyal butler Alfred. A pretty solid line-up right there. Better news for The Batman is that the rest of the month in wide open with no serious challenges coming until the end of the month with The Lost City on the 25th and Morbius the week after. And it also helped that it was a theatrical exclusive - it won't hit streaming platforms for at least 45 days. It turned out to be a hit overseas as well with a $120 million opening for a worldwide total of over $250 million. And it should hit China as well - we'll see how the world's biggest market treats this one. No doubt this one is going to fly high and we'll see if it marks a new chapter for this venerable hero.
In second place Uncharted dipped nearly 52% in the face of The Batman, bringing in $11.1 million and giving the Tom Holland/Mark Wahlberg action-adventure a new $100.3 million total, crossing that important milestone. It has earned even more overseas with $171.3 million - and, like The Batman, is also scheduled to open in China shortly. While it may have already been overshadowed by the hero, Uncharted should still be counted as a winner for 2022.
In third place, Channing Tatum's Dog brought in $6.11 million, raising its total to $40 million, dipping about 40% in the process. The film is going to be successful as well and it finally opened overseas where it brought in a modest $4.9 million. Still, this movie is far from a dog and Tatum has scored with this feel-good road trip.
In the fourth-place position Spider-Man: No Way Home may not be the top hero anymore, but is still swinging away with a $4.5 million weekend (down just 22%) and inching ever closer to that $800 million total with $786.6 million - and a mighty $1.87 billion worldwide. We'll see how long they stretch this one out but it's obviously not going anywhere quite yet.
Rounding out the top five, Death on the Nile held on the spot with a $2.75 million weekend (down 39%) and raising its total to $37.1 million. Despite the slump compared to Orient Express, I've heard that we may still yet get another Hercule Poirot adventure/mystery so we'll see if that comes to fruition. It has made a bigger splash overseas with $68.4 for a worldwide total of over $105 million.
The Batman faces no competition next week with no new wide releases scheduled so I expect this darker knight will easily reign supreme - we'll see by how much.
On the ratings from we have a big action/adventure and a true underdog looking to turn his life around (NOT Underdog, however). Things are going to get hairy.
Channing Tatum has had a good start to 2022 with the success of Dog and he looks to follow that up by teaming up with Sandra Bullock for The Lost City. Bullock plays a rather reclusive romance novelist Loretta Sage and Tatum play Alan Caprison, who is the face of Sage's hero Alan. When an eccentric billionaire played by Daniel Radcliffe decides that Sage's Lost City will lead him to actual treasure, he plots to kidnap both of them leading to a high-octane jungle adventure. I'm getting serious Romancing the Stone vibes from this one - which is not a bad thing as it looks by the trailers at least that Tatum and Bullock have some great chemistry. Brad Pitt even makes a cameo appearance and the film also stars Patti Harrison, Oscar Nuñez and Raymond Lee among others. This one may be the rare film that gets both men and women excited so could be successful based just on that. It should open well come the end of this month. Rated PG-13 for violence and some bloody images, suggestive material, partial nudity and language.
Life-affirming adventures always make for good animated film. Back in the day, it was known as Blazing Samurai but has since undergone a name change to the mouthful of Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank but the story remains the same. Very loosely based on Mel Brook's classic Blazing Saddles (hence the original name), Hank (voiced by Michael Cera) is a dog with a dream of becoming a samurai and follows his destiny to Ika Chu (Ricky Gervais) who, in the long history of everything from Karate Kid to Kill Bill to Kung-Fu Panda - is a harsh but fair teacher. The film also features the vocal talents of Samuel L. Jackson, Djimon Hounsou, Michelle Yeoh, Mel Brooks, Cathy Shim and George Takei. While the film will have a 2022 release, originally this was supposed to come out way back in 2017 and has since replaced both the original director and producers of the film - which is a bit disconcerting. Eh, it has enough potential to at least keep the kiddos happy for a few hours. Rated PG for action, violence, rude and suggestive humor, and some language.
Those are the big releases for the week, but you can check out the full MPAA Ratings Bulletin below:
A$OP ROCKY: STOCKHOLM SYNDROME
Rated R for language throughout, some sexual references and drug use.
ALICE
Rated R for some violence and language.
ALL MY PUNY SORROWS
Rated R for language and brief sexuality.
CHARIOT
Rated R for language, some sexual material and drug use.
CHIP 'N' DALE: RESCUE RANGERS
Rated PG for mild action and rude/suggestive humor.
A CLOUD SO HIGH
Rated R for language, some violent content, and brief sexual material.
DON'T MAKE ME GO
Rated R for some sexual content, graphic nudity, language and teen drinking.
GOOD LUCK TO YOU, LEO GRANDE
Rated R for sexual content, graphic nudity and some language.
THE GOOD NURSE
Rated R for language.
THE INFERNAL MACHINE
Rated R for language and some violence.
THE LOST CITY
Rated PG-13 for violence and some bloody images, suggestive material, partial nudity and language.
THE MUNSTERS
Rated PG for macabre and suggestive material, scary images and language.
PAWS OF FURY: THE LEGEND OF HANK
Rated PG for action, violence, rude and suggestive humor, and some language.
