"The Batman," the latest reboot of the franchise with Robert Pattinson stepping into the role, topped the box office over the weekend with $128.5 million in the US.
Internationally, the movie opened to $120 million for a global total of $248.5 million.
It's the second-best US debut since the pandemic began, behind "Spider-Man: No Way Home," and the fourth-best premiere for a Batman movie.
Batman has been reliable box-office gold for the studio Warner Bros. since director Christopher Nolan resurrected the character for the big-screen with his "Dark Knight" trilogy that began with 2005's "Batman Begins."
Prior to that, the franchise had laid dormant for eight years after 1997's "Batman and Robin" flopped critically and commercially. "Begins" had an uphill battle to climb and made $373 million worldwide. But its two sequels, "The Dark Knight" and "The Dark Knight Rises," both grossed more than $1 billion.
Now, Warner Bros. is betting big on director Matt Reeves' take on the character with "The Batman," with plans for HBO Max TV spinoffs about the Gotham City Police Department and the villain Penguin, played by Colin Farrell in the movie.
Insider looked at every Batman movie released theatrically, from 1989's "Batman" to "The Batman," and ranked them based on their opening-weekend US box office adjusted for inflation (there wasn't reliable box-office data for 1966's "Batman: The Movie" starring Adam West).