The reviews have been coming in for BATMAN V. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE and they've been bad. Blah, blah, blah. There's no reason to continue saying this because the fans have spoken and showed up in droves for Thursday night screenings.
According to BoxOfficeMojo, BATMAN V. SUPERMAN took in an estimate $27 million on domestic Thursday night screens. This is more than AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON ($26M) but less than THE DARK KNIGHT RISES ($30M).
So what does this mean? It means the hardcore fans don't care about about all the bad reviews and they just want to see Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman on the big screen for the first time ever.
Age of Ultron climbed to a $191M domestic opening and THE DARK KNIGHT RISES brought in $160M. This should mean that BATMAN V. SUPERMAN may fall somewhere in between and BoxOfficeMojo has their current projection for this weekend's domestic opening at approximately $166M, based on the Thursday numbers.
Regardless, this is a spectacle film that fans and many in the general audience are coming out to see so while it has its flaws, it's action moments seem to be masking those issues in the eyes of the moviegoers.
The real debate is now if BATMAN V. SUPERMAN can maintain longterm box office success after a big opening weekend. Or if this will be a movie where most of the general audience sees it once and doesn't go back for a second helping.
The comic book fan base will see it more than once, but will that be enough and will the rest of the audience come back too?
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