Benzinga Asks: Will 'The Batman' Continue Box Office Success Or Are People Still Waiting For HBO Max?

The latest movie in the Batman franchise had a strong opening weekend, which could benefit AT&T Inc T and movie theater stocks. Benzinga took to Twitter Inc TWTR to see if the majority of people were seeing the movie on opening weekend or if the movie could enjoy strong numbers later on in theaters and via streaming.

What Happened: “The Batman” enjoyed an opening weekend box office gross of over $130 million and $66 million its second weekend.

AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc AMC reported the movie led to its third-highest attended weekend in a two-year period. More than four million tickets were sold globally from Thursday through Sunday for all movies at the theater chain.

AMC had an early screening for AMC Investor Connect members, offered a free NFT based on the movie and also offered a limited-time popcorn bucket featuring Batman.

AMC reported it had a 29% market share of the U.S. box office for the weekend of the release of “The Batman,” exceeding its normal market share and also exceeding the market share it saw for the opening weekend of “Spider-Man: No Way Home.”

“Batman is the hero of Gotham and of AMC. AMC’s 3rd biggest weekend in more than 2 years, behind only 1st and 2nd weekends of Decembers’ Spider-Man. 4 million guests in AMC theaters globally. More than the same weekend in 2019 or 2020. Movie theatres are coming back,” AMC CEO Adam Aron tweeted while also including the hashtag #chokeonthat.

Imax Corp IMAX reported an opening weekend box office gross of $22.3 million for “The Batman,” including $15 million from domestic theaters. The company’s theaters had a 12% market share for North American box office revenue over the opening weekend.

The movie was the biggest March opening for Imax since 2019 and the third-biggest March opening weekend of all time, despite not releasing in China until March 18, 2022.

Related Link: Here's How Much Money The Batman Franchise Has Earned 

Can Batman Keep Up Strong Results?: “The Batman" has grossed $465 million globally to date.

Benzinga polled its users on Twitter prior to the movie’s release to see if consumers would be attending the movie’s opening weekend.

The question was “Are you watching ‘The Batman’ over the weekend?”

The possible answers and results were as followed:

• Yes, opening weekend: 38.7%
• Yes, in a week or two: 11.1%
• No, wait until streaming: 17%
• No: 33.1%

The poll showed a mixed result with the winning answer as going to see the highly anticipated movie in its opening weekend in theaters. Another favorite answer was "no" to watching the movie at all, which could be due to people being disappointed in the casting or the long run time, just shy of three hours.

Eleven percent of those polled said they would wait a week or two to see the movie. This lowest result of the four options could show that "The Batman" could fall a significant amount after its strong numbers for its debut and second weekends. 

The movie has fared well with critics and audiences, collecting a score of 8.5 (out of 10) on IMDb and scores of 86% and 89% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and audiences.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Warner Bros. released the majority of its movies with simultaneous releases in theaters and on its streaming platform HBO Max. The company is now releasing movies exclusively in theaters for a 45-day window before they hit the streaming platform.

Seventeen percent of people polled seem content with waiting until mid-April to stream the movie in the comfort of their own home.

Though those waiting may start getting impatient. The second weekend for “The Batman” was considered a success for AT&T, even after the company’s movie arm delayed the release of several of its other highly anticipated comic book adapted movies. Who's to say that the lure of buttered popcorn and theater seats won't tempt fans?

Photo: Courtesy DC Comics