While DC seems to weather a decent amount of internet hate these days, there's no denying the fact that BATMAN v SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE is one of the most anticipated films of the year. Batman alone was able to garner billions in the THE DARK KNIGHT TRILOGY, so throw him together with Superman, and the studio is bound to come across some serious coin. But, of course, the real question is how much the film will make. The folks over at BoxOffice.com have crunched the numbers, and they've seen fit to track the film at a $154 million domestic opening, well ahead of MAN OF STEEL's $116 million opening, though a bit behind THE DARK KNIGHT and THE DARK KNIGHT RISES' opening weekend earnings of $158 million and $160 million, respectively. Despite the fact that the movie will indeed have two supers at the forefront, the site took into account the mediocre ratings and word of mouth that MAN OF STEEL received.
They have also taken into account the climate we live in, as we've come to expect seeing our favorite supeheroes in the same movie, and as such, seeing these two together may not have the same impact as it would have even a few years ago. In addition, BoxOffice.com predicted that BATMAN v SUPERMAN will close its domestic run at $380 million. Again, this is well below the numbers THE DARK KNIGHT and THE DARK KNIGHT RISES saw (they closed out at $534 million and $448 million, respectively), but still quite a bit above MAN OF STEEL'S $291 million.
Of course, we'll have to wait until March to see if these numbers are anywhere close to reality. It goes without saying that predictions haven't always been correct. However, if it does turn out to be right, it may, in fact, confirm that DC and WB may have taken a bit too long in bringing out their shared universe. In the time they took to assemble their properties, Marvel went and saturated the market with eight more of their films.