The Batman will open in China on March 18th, two weeks after its domestic opening. This makes it the first of the ‘comic book movies to play in China in well over a year. And even where there have been ‘big’ Hollywood movies releasing there, we’ve seen nothing but lackluster results. Does this mean there will be a large-scale return to China as the default international release market, or has that ship sailed? Entertainment lawyer los angeles Brandon Blake of Blake & Wang P.A analyzes the development for us.
Lowered Expectations
Of course, this doesn’t mean we should all pop the bottles of champagne and assume we will see grosses equal to what was once normalized for Chinese releases. It’s not 2018 again, after all. The film is a solid entry in the style, but we’ve seen a notable swing away from recycled comic book content to other, more unique, genres in China of late. So it’s best to treat this as a ‘nice to have’ release, and not assume it will be a critical lynchpin in the film’s takings off the bat.
Solid Official Estimates
So far, The Batman is looking at weekend takings of around $80M-$100M. It could, of course, do a lot better, but it’s a solid benchmark. Perhaps we should even remember that Spider-Man: No Way Home tracked only $117M at this point. Tracking is not an official science, after all. But buzz and excitement around the film is not bad, and it’s likely to appeal to the demographics heading back to theaters. It’s the only tentpole due to release in the next month, and will likely gain traction for that alone.
While China doubtless won’t be the make-or-break point for The Batman, it’s still good to see a superhero-style film head back to their viewing circuit. Where to from here? It likely won’t be the next Spider-Man, but then again, who knows? It will be fun to see what happens from here out.
