Warner Bros. Pictures‘ Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice opened to an impressive $82 million on Good Friday from 4,242 theaters, making it one of the top Friday openings ever. The film, which cost a reported $250 million to make before marketing, averaged $19,333 per theater. The Friday total includes $27.7 million from Thursday previews, which were the highest Thursday preshow ever for Easter weekend, beating Furious 7‘s $15.8 million from last year.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice received a B CinemaScore from audiences, which could mean trouble ahead for Warner Bros. because of word of mouth, though the film should be able to top $170 million domestically its opening weekend. By comparison, The Dark Knight Rises earned $160.9 million its first weekend and ended up grossing $1.084 billion worldwide. Batman v Superman looks like it will break the record for best pre-summer opening, surpassing The Hunger Games‘ $152.5 million from March 2012.
Overseas, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice added $67.2 million on Friday for a total of $115.3 million internationally in three days. The Friday total includes $20 million from China, the largest ever opening day for a Warner Bros. release there. Worldwide, the film is up to $197 million so far!
The Zack Snyder-directed film stars Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/Superman, Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Gal Gadot as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman, with Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne and Diane Lane returning from Man of Steel, joined by Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, Jeremy Irons as Alfred, Holly Hunter as Senator Finch, as well as Scoot McNairy, Callan Mulvey and Tao Okamoto.
