In case you weren’t 100% convinced, The Batman is one of the — if not the most — anticipated movies of the year among film-goers; early ticket sales are proof. A special preview at 350 Imax locations around the country slated for March 1 sold out immediately after being publicly by Warner Bros. Tuesday, Deadline reports.
The preview date has a simultaneous schedule with the New York red carpet premiere, a few days before broadly opening to theaters everywhere, so that some fans could watch it at the same time as some of its stars.
Similar to the monumental success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which is on track to overtake Avatar as the third highest-grossing film of all time, domestically, some estimates are already betting that The Batman will have another $100 million opening weekend.
Overall, it’s a good sign that superhero and comic book films may be here to stay in terms of dominating box office receipts, especially considering the genre arguably breathed new life into the coronavirus pandemic-stricken movie theater industry.
In terms of what audiences can expect from Robert Pattinson’s turn as the Caped Crusader, the film is being touted as yet another “gritty reimagining” of the character, of which we’ve seen multiple versions in the past couple of decades, beginning with Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins in 2005.
However, the film does sound like it will somewhat differentiate itself from what Zack Snyder’s Frank Miller-influenced version of Bruce Wayne was in Batman v Superman and Nolan’s Michael Mann homage that was The Dark Knight. Director Matt Reeves and Pattinson have said in recent interviews the film is heavily inspired by 1970s cinema, like All the President’s Men and the real-life Zodiac Killer, which certainly sounds like a unique enough spin to pique our interest.
The Batman, which also stars Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman and Paul Dano as the Riddler, swings into theaters March 4, with nationwide previews arriving on March 3.