‘Dawn Of Justice’ Breaks Record For Largest Two- Day Drop
Monday morning, I’m sure
that many an executive at Warner Brothers
were gathered in the board room
for a touch of the bubbly, with
lots of
handshakes and hugs spread around. After all, their critically-
panned Batman
v. Superman
grossed $166 million in its first weekend in theaters. As we
know, Rome
wasn’t built in a day and,
before the studio really starts
celebrating, there is one little tidbit of
information they may have
overlooked
– actual ticket sales and gross each day this weekend. The data
is an eye opener
and may
prompt the balloons to be popped.
The alarming numbers come from
a
mix of research by both Box Office
Mojo and Forbes. While Batman v. Superman
hit the ground
running with $81 million on Friday
(inflated due to the
inclusion of Thursday’s box office), ticket sales
decreased by 37.9% going into
Saturday for a gross of $55 million. Even though Sunday was a Christian
holiday,
ticket sales dropped
another 33% to $37 million. Overall, Dawn Of
Justice dropped 55%
from Friday to Sunday, setting the
record for sharpest
two day decline. The previous holder? Josh Trank’s
reboot of Fantastic
Four
last year, which showed a 48% decrease in ticket sales from Friday to
Sunday.
Zack Snyder’s latest DC
Comics offering has sharply divided fans
down the middle, more-so than
Man Of Steel three short
years ago, but
that figure is certainly alarming. Man Of Steel was
meant to launch the
DCU but
stalled out at $668 million, while the studio had expectations of a $1
billion gross. That’s much less than
most other introductory tales for the
super hero genre. According to
an
article in Variety,
Batman v. Superman will need to clear $800
million to be considered
a true success. For comparison,
Marvel’s Guardians
Of The Galaxy was made for $170 million but
cleared $773 million by the end
of its theatrical run. Fox’s Deadpool had only a budget of $58
million
and has already gone on
to gross $746 million worldwide as of Easter
Sunday.
Of course,
Warner Brothers does have monies due
in for licensing
and merchandising to help clear the gap. So far, the steep
drop-off has raised
many an
eyebrow. Monday’s official figures have yet to be released so currently
we’re unable to see if the trend
will continue. Dawn of Justice will
need steady legs in order to
remain atop of the box office in
the weeks ahead
but, if ticket sales continue to dwindle, one has to wonder
if Warner Brothers
will feel
more concerned about their franchise. The key indicator will be the
decline
between opening and second
weekend. If Batman V. Superman
drops anything over 66% percent
(most genre films tumble 40-to-60%
second
weekend), then the hand shaking may cease.
Batman v.
Superman: Dawn
Of Justice is
currently playing in theaters across the nation and world.
Jerrold spent his childhood in southeastern Pennsylvania ingesting far too many TV shows and movies, thus creating a stark-raving mad geek. He’s a movie aficionado, binge-watches Netflix, and is a total TV junkie. His addiction has led to an unhealthy and rabid obsession of various geek pantheons – Star Trek, Star Wars, both DC *AND* Marvel,
cult 80’s and 90’s television, Supernatural, The X-Files, Doctor Who, and, and…holy overload. He’s still waiting to run away in a 1967 Impala or a blue police box.
