Deadpool‘s success last month was a pretty big deal, not only because of the financial success, but because that success was apparently such a surprise to the film industry. But it’s now been over a month since Deadpool opened, which is an eternity in Pop Culture Time, and apparently superhero fans have already moved on to the next big thing. That thing, of course, being Batman v Superman.
BvS is already outpacing both Deadpool and the record-breaking Avengers in advance ticket sales. According to Deadline Hollywood, the film has already earned between $20-25M in advance sales, which puts it on a similar track to 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises, which had a $160.9M opening weekend. That trajectory alone would put it ahead of Deadpool‘s opening weekend, which earned the film $132.4M. It would have further to go to beat Avengers‘ $207.4M opening, but as BvS opens on March 25, it’s got a whole ten days to close the gap.
As reported by Comic Book Resources, Movio (a service that monitors ticket-buying trends) Co-Founder and Chief Executive Will Palmer has this to say about BvS’ numbers:
As expected, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is anticipated by the fan male audience. The audience profile is 78% male, massively over indexing between age 14-49. This is your avid opening weekend audience with some 70% attending films during opening week, spending 3.2 times more than the typical US moviegoer.
Movio also notes that 57% of the advance sales have been for the Thursday preview night and another 22% are for the Friday night.
Honestly, I don’t understand the stock the movie industry places in Opening Weekends. I mean, I get that, because these tentpole films are so expensive, they need to make sure that at the very least everyone will recoup their investments. But it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. If a movie opens big, but everyone thinks it sucks, there goes repeat-viewer and word-of-mouth money.
Also, it’s interesting to me that they talk about the fact that all the ticket sales are coming from a primarily male audience… without at least examining the potential loss of sales because the film might not be resonating as much with female fans — even with the glimpse of Wonder Woman we’ll get (but come on! Don’t we all want to see that?).
So, just like everything else, male interest is in a quick opening weekend box office explosion, whereas women like to take their time, building that box office revenue slowly, based on genuine interest and lots of communication.
I’m sorry, that metaphor got really unwieldy. The point is, Batman v Superman is doing well, I guess. So yay! Right?
Really, I’m just waiting for Wonder Woman to come out. What about you? Will you be adding yourself to the BvS opening weekend throngs?
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