Batman Begins News

"Superman Returns" is off to a strong start, albeit not as fast as a speeding bullet. Warner Bros. superhero tentpole grossed a solid $52.5 million on its opening weekend and $74 million over the five-day Fourth of July frame. Since its Wednesday opening, the Bryan Singer-helmed franchise restart has taken in $106 million. Though the Man of Steel dominated the frame, "The Devil Wears Prada" was the biggest surprise. Fox's chick lit adaptation proved very successful counterprogramming, grossing $27 million for the weekend and $39.6 million over five days -- far beyond expectations.

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"Wedding Crashers" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" lead the pack at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards, garnering five noms each. Both are up for top film honors, along with "King Kong," "Sin City" and "Batman Begins." The awards ceremony features unorthodox categories such as best kiss and best action scene, but new this year are categories for best hero and sexiest performance as well as an mtvU student filmmaker award. Kudocast will be taped June 3 at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City and will air June 8.

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A few months ago, skeptics were predicting a glum summer for Time Warner. Without a "Harry Potter" for Warner Bros. and without any high-profile films for New Line, Time Warner threatened to become a summer also-ran -- like Sony, as it patiently waits for its next "Spider-Man." Instead, Warner Bros. and New Line nabbed the top three box office slots this past weekend with WB's "Dukes of Hazzard," New Line's "Wedding Crashers" and WB's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." As a bonus, Warners' "Must Love Dogs" came in at No. 5 and the No. 6 slot went to "March of the Penguins," Warner Independent's surprise hit that has become the second-highest-grossing docu of all time. The achievement is notable because both companies accomplished this without any tentpole franchises, such as Warner Bros. Pictures' "Harry Potter" or New Line's 'Lord of the Rings." (The new "Potter" film opens in November.) And the success of these TW films, which also includes WB's "Batman Begins," offers the hope of future franchises.

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Now that the smoke has cleared on many of Hollywood's day-and-date action films - which have invaded international territories with mixed results this summer - a pair of slow-rolling family films are quenching audiences' thirsts for something less bombastic. Moviegoers are responding less enthusiastically to "Batman Begins" and the like than they did last year to "Spider-Man," "Harry Potter" or Jesus Christ, leaving studio executives scratching their heads. Over the last three weeks, family movies have dominated internationally. Warner Bros.' "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" led the way last weekend, with nearly $20 million; UIP's "Madagascar" took the previous two weekends against action films "Fantastic Four" and "War of the Worlds." The trend mirrors one in the U.S. in which audiences seem drained by the spate of superheroes and spaceships that have lately been flying by. (Last weekend, at the U.S. box office, four of the top five movies were not actioners but films ranging from gross-out to romantic comedy.)

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Warner Home Video is releasing the first two-disc special editions of all WB "Batman" movies Oct. 18, around the time when "Batman Begins" will be released on DVD. The collection, including Tim Burton's original "Batman" and "Batman Returns" as well as Joel Schumacher's "Batman Forever" and "Batman & Robin," will be titled "Batman: The Motion Picture Anthology 1989-1997." The DVDs will offer a combined 18 hours of bonus features, including director commentaries, making-of featurettes, deleted and additional scenes and nine musicvideos.

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Though it didn't rival the results of last year's Fourth of July holiday, Paramount and DreamWorks' "War of the Worlds" turned in an impressive $77.6 million opening over the Friday-to-Monday long weekend. Playing 3,908 theaters, the Steven Spielberg-Tom Cruise alien invasion movie has a domestic total of $113.3 million in its first six days, and $102.5 million overseas in its first five days. For Independence Day openings, "Worlds" is behind only last year's mammoth "Spider-Man 2," which amassed $180 million for its six-day opening. The weekend's only other new wide release was 20th Century Fox's "Rebound," which scored $6 million in its opening session, good for the No. 7 spot overall. In second place was Warner Bros.' "Batman Begins," which earned $18.7 million over the four-day span, raising its total to $154.1 million. In third was 20th Century Fox's "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" with $12.7 million in its fourth frame, boosting its total to $146.1 million. Holding the No. 4 spot was Sony's "Bewitched," which made $10.8 million in its second week. Comparing the three-day portion of the weekend to its opening, the Nicole Kidman-Will Ferrell comedy dropped a steep 55%. The movie, which Sony says cost $80 million to produce but is thought to have cost significantly more, has grossed $40.3 million. Also in its sophomore session, Walt Disney's "Herbie: Fully Loaded" placed fifth for the weekend with $10.5 million.

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It's the midpoint of the year and the story thus far has been the string of 17 weekends that haven't measured up to last year. But the thing that most troubles Hollywood is the damp summer season, which is off to its worst start in four years. The gaps between 2005 and 2004 are being used as evidence of a fundamental shift in the way Americans consume movies. But they are more indicative of the hit-and-miss nature of the business: sometimes blockbusters can materialize out of nowhere, sometimes sure things fail to click with audiences. Despite several strong titles, including "Batman Begins," "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," "Madagascar," "The Longest Yard" and, of course, "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith," the summer season continues to struggle. Seven weekends into the most lucrative box office season, receipts since the first week of May stand at $1.34 billion, the lowest since 2001. Compared with last year's start -- which featured back-to-back giant openings of "Van Helsing," "Troy," "Shrek 2," "The Day After Tomorrow" and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" -- this year's tally is trailing 8.2% or $120 million behind. The slow summer follows what was a reasonably strong winter and spring. Though numbers trailed 2004, it was largely due to the distorting effect of "The Passion of the Christ," which rang up $371 million over a traditionally weak portion of the calendar.

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Early returns here and overseas for Warner Bros.' "Batman Begins" suggest the streak of disappointing weekends may be ending. The movie opened Wednesday with $15 million from 3,718 theaters. Global returns were solid, especially in Mexico, where the film's $829,698 first-day take was more than 150% ahead of first-day numbers on blockbusters "The Day After Tomorrow" and "I, Robot" last summer. The frame's only other wide release is Universal's "The Perfect Man," in 2,087 locations. The omantic tale starring Hilary Duff and Heather Locklear is aimed at the teen girls who don't dig guys in capes. "We chose this date because it looked to be perfect counterprogramming to `Batman,' " said U distribution chief Nikki Rocco. After 16 weekends in a row that have been down against their 2004 counterparts, the combo of a strong "Batman" bow with a solid hold by Fox's "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," which opened last week to $50 million, stands a good chance of lifting total weekend box office above the $139 million mark set last year. Warners' exit poll data showing 64% male aud is also likely to be good news for "Smith," which tilted toward women in its second week.

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Hoping to reverse the summer's lackluster results, Warner Bros. is launching "Batman Begins" today in 3,718 theaters domestically and 71 territories worldwide. On Friday, the movie will expand to 3,858 locations in the widest-ever release for the studio. Buoyed by tracking that shows strong interest among a core male audience in the fifth film in Warner's 16-year-old "Batman" franchise, distrib president Dan Fellman predicted, "This is the one where we're going to see an uptick at the box office." Industry expectations are for "Begins" -- directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Christian Bale as the masked avenger -- to post the biggest opening of the franchise. That record is held by "Batman Forever," which opened 10 years ago, nearly to the day, with $52.8 million.

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On the heels of a laggardly spring at the foreign box office, Warner Bros.' "Batman Begins" swoops into four international markets today and 67 more over the next three days with 8,000-plus playdates. The fifth installment of the Batman saga opens today amid a massive promo campaign in Belgium, France, Switzerland and the Philippines, followed by Thursday launches in Australia, Germany, Holland, Hong Kong and Singapore. Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom are the major markets opening Friday, followed by Japan on Saturday. The day-and-date strategy is designed to maximize marketing efforts and the improved multiplex structure in offshore territories while minimizing piracy problems. The only markets not opening this weekend are South Korea, which will open the following weekend, and Scandinavia.

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