• by Wayne Friedman , March 6, 2022

Going back to exclusive theatrical movie openings for 2022, Warner Bros.’ “The Batman” posted a strong $128.5 million in North American box-office revenue, according to Comscore -- the biggest 2022 film opening and the second-biggest during the COVID-19 pandemic era.

Warner Bros. spent heavily on national TV media -- $29.8 million, according to iSpot.tv, since January 18 -- from 1,146 airings, resulting in 920.3 million impressions. The bulk of its TV ad spend went to the NBC’s “2022 Winter Olympics,” NFL Football and NBA Basketball.

It was the studio’s first exclusive theatrical opening in over a year. In a high-profile controversial move, for all of 2021, the studio elected to start all theatrical movies simultaneously with a start on WarnerMedia’s streaming service, HBO Max.

"The Batman" will debut on HBO Max in 45 days. It’s Warner Bros.' first exclusive theatrical theater start since “Tenet” -- which opened in September 2020.

All this comes as "The Batman" in international theaters pulled in $120 million from 74 overseas markets -- sans one major market, Russia. Warner Bros. pulled the movie’s opening in Russia because of that country’s invasion of Ukraine. Globally, the movie is now at $248.5 million.

The latest version of the movie posted the second-best North American theatrical opening in the pandemic era. The best results were for "Spider-Man: No Way Home," with its December opening $260 million take. “Spider-Man” now has a global cumulative box office of $1.87 billion.

After “Batman”, Sony Pictures’ “Uncharted” , now in its third week, took in another $11 million in North American’s business-- now totaling $100.3 million. Another movie in its third week, MGM/UA’s “Dog,” was at $6 million for the latest three-day weekend, now with $40 million overall.