Matt Reeves’ ‘The Batman’ Predicted to Dominate the March Box Office

There is a lot of optimism that Robert Pattinson’s The Batman would bring in some major ticket sales when it hits theaters in early March, and early predictions from Box Office Pro are now forecasting a figure of $150 million as the estimated opening weekend gross. In comparison, the projection places the film in line with Captain Marvel, which was released in March of last year, and well ahead of many of 2021’s releases, including Black Widow and other Marvel films, with the exception of Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Since the film’s and, more importantly, its star actor’s announcement, public opinion on the casting of Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne has shifted dramatically. With each new clip and trailer release, the anticipation for the film grows, leading to the picture now being predicted to be among the top earners in 2022, and it has so far managed to silence many skeptics even before its premiere.

There is certainly a growing amount of love for what we’ve seen so far from Pattinson’s take on the Dark Knight, judging by the number of social media posts and accompanying comments. And unlike Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy and many prior large incarnations offered Batman an origin narrative, Matt Reeves has purposefully avoided having any form of origin sequence since he believes it has been done too many times already. Instead, Reeves decided that having a much earlier incarnation of the character in his career was more intriguing.

With a cast that includes Catwoman, The Riddler, The Penguin, Carmine Falcone, and others from the Batman universe, finding screen time for all of them to take a fair shot at the whip has resulted in the picture having a 176-minute length, making it the longest Batman film ever released on the big screen. Although this clearly provides Reeves a lot of leeway to deliver the story he wants, some fear the epic run time may hinder the film by limiting the number of showings a theatre can screen each day. However, with no rival releases scheduled for the same week, it is unlikely to have a significant negative impact on the box office for the movie.

The fate of The Batman not only depends on its own success, but also on the large investment Warner Bros. has made in the two planned spinoff shows and potential sequels it has planned for the future. Given the decision between shortening the timeframe and delivering a comprehensive, complicated, and thorough story that will pique audiences’ interest in the new incarnation of the Caped Crusader, it is apparent which option Reeves would take every time.