The Batman’s prime position for overwhelming success
The upcoming new interpretation of DC’s Dark Knight, Batman, is in a prime position to succeed on almost all merits.
The Batman is finally almost here. When the film finally releases, it will have been nearly two years since that first DC FanDome trailer in August 2020.
There is a lot of excitement for the movie, and the marketing material seems to be on point, showcasing a well-crafted experience with an exciting cast.
As of right now, the film is scheduled to release in March with no serious competition. Q1 2022 is severely lacking an event film, so Batman essentially has March to himself, if the schedule sticks.
Everything can change with The Batman‘s release but the excitement surrounding this film shows that it can succeed any time it wants to.
Expectations for The Batman
The Batman is in a similar place that Batman Begins was before its release. The last Batman film before Christopher Nolan’s first outing was Batman and Robin, so all Nolan had to do was make something better than that, and he’d be in good standing.
With The Batman, it’s the first solo Batman film since 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises and it comes after Warner Bros. has distanced itself from Ben Affleck’s iteration. While Affleck’s Batman is well respected, the movies he starred in were divisive, so The Flash will be his last appearance with the start of a new DCEU.
Similar to Christopher Nolan, all Matt Reeves’ upcoming film has to do is successfully introduce a new Batman that audiences can get excited about. And every single new trailer or poster gets tons of impressions from all over.
While there’s always a chance the film disappoints, Warner Bros. and everyone else involved seem very confident in their product.
Budget
Another reason this film is almost a guaranteed success is its somewhat conservative budget. Zack Snyder’s DC films were extremely expensive, and they never quite hit their sky-high financial expectations.
The budget of The Batman is reported to be $100 million, which is cheap when compared to its predecessors. The film will open in a lot of markets the same week, so it will most definitely make back its budget when it opens. There’s almost no way it won’t be profitable with this low of a budget and a character this popular.
However, everyone involved with the film will want this film to be more than just “profitable”. This is supposed to be a start of a new Batman-centric universe with potential shows and films crossing over. Early box office predictions say this will open to $100 million-plus domestically, which would more than justify the investment they are putting into kickstarting a new cinematic universe.
Detachment
As successful as the DCEU and MCU have been, both of them (especially the MCU) are relying upon prior knowledge of their past films.
Spider-Man: No Way Home brought joy to millions around the world, but that film requires knowledge of not only Tom Holland’s prior solo films but of past Spider-Man films outside of the MCU to fully comprehend the references and context. If someone didn’t do their homework before No Way Home, they’d most likely be lost.
The Batman will require no prior knowledge of the DCEU or past Batman films. It’s just a new reboot of the character and that’s it. It’s inspired by David Fincher mystery thrillers like Seven and Zodiac, which is a genre a casual audience can get invested in. While yes, the film will likely spawn sequels and spin-offs, everything with Batman will most likely stand on its own with no baggage of a convoluted cinematic universe.
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Are you excited for The Batman? What kind of response do you think it will get? Let us know in the comments below!