Batman V Superman Passes $250 Million Domestic, $600 Milion Globally In Second Weekend

Batman V Superman had a 68% drop in its second weekend at the box office, generating just over $52 [...]

By Russ Burlingame

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Batman V Superman had a 68% drop in its second weekend at the box office, generating just over $52 million this weekend.

Its current domestic box office haul sits at $261 million -- but as expected, it's earned more than half its money at the international box office. The 68% drop is the biggest second-week drop ever for either a Batman- or Superman-driven movie, and significantly higher than average for a comic book blockbuster, but less than the 70% projected by some box office forecasts on Friday.

The $261 million number pushes Batman V Superman past The Lego Movie and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug to become one of Warner Bros.' 20 highest-grossing movies of all time at the domestic box office. Man of Steel remains ahead of it at #11 (291 million), while The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises are the two biggest Warner Bros. movies of all time with $533 million and $448 million, respectively.

The movie's fall isn't unprecedented for a Warner Bros. mega-franchise: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, with the biggest opening weekend in Warner Bros. history, dropped 72% in its second weekend and still went on to earn more than $375 million domestically and $1 billion globally. That isn't necessarily a model for Batman V Superman, though; for starters, Harry Potter was a summer release, and since it was a family film that helped it perform better throughout the week. In spite of a marginally bigger opening weekend, and a bigger second week drop, Harry Potter had outgrossed Batman V Superman at this point in its theatrical run in North America. Besides that, the international grosses for the final installment in the Potter franchise were outrageously high, giving the movie the kind of lift Batman V Superman is unlikely to enjoy.

It isn't totally impossible that international will have a big impact, though (just not Harry Potter big); domestic flops like Men in Black III have recently been transformed into hits with big international draws, and it will be hard to call Batman V Superman a "flop" no matter what, since even while it's likely to disappoint analysts and the studio, it will still almost certainly make around $800 million at the global box office -- more than Man of Steel, which was enough of a success to spawn this sequel.

Despite a steep drop-off in its second weekend, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice continues to perform strongly around the world, surpassing the $600 million mark at the global box office yesterday.

Despite poor reviews, the film -- which will set the stage for DC's Extended Universe -- had a record-breaking opening weekend last week. This week saw a significant drop, in spite of higher-than-expected repeat viewings for people who had already seen the film, suggesting that the draw of seeing Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman onscreen together created a front-loaded and fan driven first weekend and that the film's poor reviews and mediocre word of mouth are making it challenging to attract casual moviegoers.

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Have you seen Dawn of Justice yet? If so, go rate it in the ComicBook.com Movie Database for a chance to win your very own Armored Batman figure!

Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice is now playing in theaters.

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