Warner Bros’ complete return to the theatrical window, sans HBO Max day-and-date, is proving to be a lucrative feat. Since debuting with previews Tuesday night, the Matt Reeves-directed The Batman has racked up $21.6 million. Between special one-showtime-only previews, largely Imax, on Tuesday and Wednesday, The Batman rang up $4M, which means Thursday shows after 3pm did $17.6M. Batman was booked in about 3,300 theaters for previews, and its theater count rises to 4,217 today.
The Batman‘s Thursday previews are ahead of such DC fare as Justice League ($13M) and Wonder Woman ($11M), but below The Dark Knight ($18.5M), The Dark Knight Rises ($30.6M) and Batman v. Superman ($27.7M). Still, The Batman is in healthy box office territory and comes at such a great, pivotal time for theaters: It’s largely been a year since the New York City and Los Angeles markets were able to reopen; L.A. just announced it’ lifting the indoor mask mandate for vaccinated and unvaccinated, while New York City will rescind its indoor mask policy Monday. NRG reported earlier this week that those moviegoers who are “very or somewhat comfortable” attending the cinema reached 80%, just a point shy of the all-time high set back on July 11, 2021 (81%).
The Batman is an exclusive cinema release. However, the movie will eventually come to HBO Max – surprisingly soon, in fact. While Warner Bros. is no longer streaming its big releases day-and-date like it did across 2021 – Dune, The Suicide Squad, and The Matrix Resurrections all benefited – it’s still committed to bringing major blockbusters into homes as quickly as possible.
“The Batman’s going to show up on day 46 on HBO Max,” WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar told the Recode podcast in December 2021. That means we can expect The Batman to arrive 46 days after its first day in the cinema, which is March 4.
Nothing has changed since Kilar’s announcement, which makes The Batman’s HBO Max release date is April 19.
HBO Max is also set to be the home for two upcoming Batman spin-offs. One revolves around Colin Farrell’s Penguin and is described as a “Scarface” story. The other spin-off is a series based on the GCPD, which will also crossover with the main film.
Of course, this is only applicable to those who have access to HBO Max in their region. Those in the UK, for example, will likely have to wait a little bit longer to buy or rent it digitally or on Blu-Ray – potentially into June or July if something like Spider-Man: No Way Home is any indication.
Watching The Batman on a streaming service might take even longer than that, sadly. We’ll update this page as soon as we know more.
