Hasn't been much to write about lately but it's going to be interesting tracking this number.

On the surface it's a hugely unimpressive number for the weekend given the 4200 screens and a free play into the marketplace. Deadline is doing their usual thing here trying to push the positive -- "it had huge presales!" -- but a frontloaded, $110 mil opening is simply dismal for a big comic book property when the comic book properties are the main ingredient in keeping this struggling marketplace going.

Could be that some are worn out by Batman and felt like I did -- but no matter, it should have a healthy opening, which this number -- if accurate -- would not be. Mixed word of mouth shouldn't impact the start at least.

Looks like a $120 mil opening...which still is eye-opening for its range given the picture.

Unless people have just kind of "had it" with Batman, this number really shows the marketplace for theatrical features has irrevocably changed and it's never going to be the same.

I know MJ won't want to read that but something like Spider-Man is going to be an outlier -- when you have a total reboot of one of the most popular super-heroes around, go out and get 4200 screens, zero competition, ticket prices that have risen in a lot of places, COVID restrictions that have been lifted in many places...they can tout "pandemic records!" all they want but this number is kind of dismal. In pre-pandemic times and with inflation being adjusted, that number would be close to an outright flop.

It's going to take a certain kind of movie everyone wants to see to motivate them to leave the house and go to the theater again. The way Hollywood has operated for the last few years, though, regurgitating the same old franchises endlessly, the question for many will be -- why will they need to?