LOS ANGELES, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Warner Bros. Pictures' superhero film "The Batman" took the top spot at the North American box office for the third weekend in a row with a three-day estimate of 36.8 million U.S. dollars, according to studio figures released by measurement firm Comscore on Sunday.
The tentpole, based on the DC Comics character Batman, has garnered 300.1 million dollars in ticket sales in North America to date. It is the biggest opener of 2022 and the highest grossing film released this year in North America thus far.
Directed by Matt Reeves, the film, with a budget of 200 million dollars, stars British actor Robert Pattinson in the dual role of Gotham City's vigilante detective and his alter ego, reclusive billionaire Bruce Wayne, alongside Zoe Kravitz, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro, Peter Sarsgaard and Jayme Lawson.
"The Batman" also earned 49.1 million dollars internationally over the weekend for a foreign cume of 298 million dollars, pushing its global tally to 598.1 million dollars to date. The film opened to over 75 million yuan (around 11.8 million dollars) in its first weekend in the Chinese mainland, according to the box office data compiled by Maoyan, a Chinese movie-ticketing and film data platform.
Funimation Films' Japanese animated fantasy "Jujutsu Kaisen O" opened in second at the North American box office with 17.7 million dollars this weekend. Rounding out the top 3, Sony Pictures' action-adventure film "Uncharted" took in 8 million dollars in its fifth weekend for a North American total of 125.9 million dollars. ■
