Image: Ben Affleck as Batman in Dawn of Justice
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice‘s ticket sales dropped by 68.4% this weekend, the fifth biggest second-weekend drop of any movie that’s ever opened above $100 million. That’s a worse second-weekend decrease even than Josh Trank’s infamous Fantastic Four, which dropped by 68.2%, and about equal with Dawn of Justice director Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch.
That being said, Dawn of Justice has still made a cool $682.8 million already worldwide, surpassing the global earnings of Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Captain America, Man of Steel, and Thor. However, its chances of crossing the $1 billion mark now look less likely.
Although you could draw a lot of conclusions between Dawn of Justice‘s critical reception and the second-weekend drop—and you’d probably be right about at least some of them!—it’s historically not just been critically condemned movies that see significant drops in their second weekend. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—Part 2 had an even larger second-weekend drop, at 72%.
Although box office results can seem irrelevant to me sometimes (considering I’m a fan and not, like, an exec), money does talk. I’m curious what Warner Bros. infers from this drop, and how those inferences will impact Justice League and their other slated films. Personally, I see Dawn of Justice‘s second weekend as an indicator that DC fans just aren’t getting the quality movies they, and DC’s characters, deserve. Clearly fans are willing to spend money on DC fare—the opening weekend Dawn of Justice ticket sales proves that much—and I suspect that, if they’d loved what they saw, more fans would have returned for a second round this weekend. At least for a significant portion of people, though, that wasn’t the case.
In happier news, Zootopia is continuing its impressive money-making streak, raking in $20 million this weekend! Now there’s a movie I wouldn’t mind opening my wallet for again.
Image: Zootopia
(via Uproxx and Box Office Mojo)
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