The Batman struggling at China box office

The Batman is struggling at the China box office, though the fault does not lie squarely on Matt Reeves' new superhero epic. 

Following a year of keeping the coronavirus pandemic under control in the country, China has seen a recent surge in the Omicron variant that has led to select cinemas being shuttered – one report estimates that 30% of screens are closed and that major city populations, which are the most likely to see Western-imported movies, are sticking away from theaters. 

As a result, The Batman has earned just $2.1 million on its opening Friday, including presales for Saturday and Sunday, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That still makes The Batman the number one film in the country, with a 70% market share, as reported by Variety. In second place is The Battle at Lake Changjin II, which has already made over $450 million in China, and third comes Uncharted, the Tom Holland adventurer, which launched on Monday and has so far made $6.52 million at the box office. 

Beijing-based ticketing app Maoyan predicts The Batman will make a cumulative $33 million, though that projection may be revised. On China's reviews website Douban, where film fans post their takes on new releases, The Batman has a 7.7 score, which signals a fairly warm – though not resoundingly so – response to Robert Pattinson's take on the Caped Crusader

That $33 million figure will be a disappointment to Warner Bros. as the studio's last solo Batman movie – The Dark Knight Rises – made $52.8 million back in 2012. China's box office potential has exploded since then, with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice earning $95.8 million in 2016, and the original cut of Justice League managing $106 million in 2017. 

It's also worth noting that Western movies have struggled to get released in China in recent years, with The Batman being the first Hollywood-made superhero movie being released in the country in over a year. Whether China has simply lost its appetite for superhero movies or the Coronavirus has made it impossible for The Batman to succeed will no doubt be a hotly debated topic by box office analysts for the foreseeable future.

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