‘Batman V Superman’ Advance Ticket Sales Outpacing ‘Deadpool’, ‘The Avengers’
Warner Bros. has a lot riding onBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Not only did it cost a ton to make and market, it needs to do well enough to set up the next five years of DC films, including twoJustice Leaguemovies and a soloBatmanouting. So it’s gotta come as a huge relief to hear that the film is doing well in advance ticket sales –reallywell, actually, beating out pre-sales for other recent hits likeDeadpool,Furious 7, andThe Avengers.
Deadline’s sources reportBatman v Supermanhas racked up $20-25 million in advance ticket sales already — not far behind whatThe Dark Knight Risesdid in 2012, before going on to a $160 million opening weekend. Analysts estimateBatman v Supermancould goup to $140 millionin its first weekend, with a total global take of around $300-$340 million. If those numbers pan out,Batman v Supermanwill be the biggest Easter debut of all time.
Perhaps not surprisingly,Batman v Supermanis appealing most to young men. SaidWill Palmer, co-founder of the movie marketing firm Movio:
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.
Of course, it’s worth pointing out here that predicting a film’s box office take is a tricky task. It was only a few weeks ago thatDeadpoolvaulted over even the most optimistic projections to become one of the best-performing superhero movies of all time — leaving analysts and pundits scrambling to explain how a modestly budgeted R-rated feature about a second-string (by non-comics-geek standards) superhero could’ve outperformed much splashier films carefully engineered to appeal to the widest swath of moviegoers possible.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justicefeatures what seems like an irresistible hook — “son of Krypton versus bat of Gotham!” – but the marketing materials so far have been met with mixed responses. It doesn’t help, either, that it looks to be in a similar vein as the polarizingMan of Steel. And ifBatman v Supermantanks, the films that follow will face an uphill climb. So theseBatman v Supermannumbers aren’t just good for Batman and Superman fans — they’re a good sign if you’re excited to seeWonder Woman, orThe Flash, orGreen Lantern, orJustice League, or any of the other films Warner Bros.' DC universe is currently cooking up.Batman v Superman: Dawn of JusticeopensMarch 25.
