‘batman v. Superman’ hits tracking boards: looks to rule world with $300m-$340m opening – update

Warner Bros.’ DC title _Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice _officially registered on tracking reports this morning, four weeks before its March 25 debut, and industry/non-Warner Bros.

estimates have the ultimate feud film between the Dark Knight and the Son of Jor-El opening worldwide between $300M-$340M in over 30K screens. Among global superhero debuts, if _BvS

_actually does those numbers, it would rank fifth behind _Avengers _($392.5M), _Avengers: Age of Ultron _($392.5M), _Spider-Man 3 _($381.7M) and _Iron Man 3 _($372.5M). _BvS _will open

everywhere including China. Warner Bros.’ intent for this massive blast-off is to capitalize on the Easter holiday around the world. While Good Friday will shut down business in countries

like Poland, the high holy day isn’t expected to impede foot traffic here in the U.S. Last year, _Furious 7_‘s Good Friday haul of $67.4M was the highest pre-summer opening day ever. In the

U.S./Canada, the Zack Snyder-directed title is expected to pull in an estimated $120M-$140M at 4,000-plus locations in 3D, 4DX, PLF and Imax (this is updated from our report last week).  

There’s even a few 70MM prints of _BvS _(and no, Warner Bros. isn’t using any of the projectors left over from _The Hateful Eight_). Should those figures stand up, _BvS _would rank as the

second-highest March opening after 2012’s _The Hunger Games _($152.5M). Total awareness, definite interest and first choice is huge among males under and over 25. “Youngest females are their

weakest quad, but they’re still damn good,” beamed one rival distribution exec this morning. WATCH ON DEADLINE _BvS _advance tickets went on sale Monday.  How are they? Insiders tell

Deadline that the first day sales of _BvS_ outstripped that of _The Dark Knight Rises. _That 2012 threequel went on to drum up $25M in advance ticket sales before its three-day opening of

$160.9M. One rival studio B.O. analyst upon hearing the pre-sales intel on _BvS_ indicated that if the film is truly pacing in tandem with _Dark Knight Rises, _then the Batman-Superman combo

could possibly be looking at a $180M-plus stateside debut. How’s that? Turns out that was the original industry opening projection for _Dark Knight Rises _before the Aurora, CO. midnight

theater shooting struck and slowed down business for the Christopher Nolan film during its first FSS. Put an asterisk on that forecast. _Dark Knight Rises _had the benefit of summer weekday

audiences, _BvS _is hoping to milk as many spring breakers as possible. However, when it comes to record openings at the box office, does it even matter anymore what season you play?

Rev4Media, a New Bedford, Mass. movie analytics company that measures audiences’ real-time responses to in-theater trailers, reported that 78% of those who watched the final _BvS _trailer

(Feb. 11 version) last weekend would definitely buy a ticket to the movie. That’s not too far from the 83% who reported to Rev4Media that they would buy a ticket to _Deadpool _after they

watched that pic’s trailers in theaters. Rev4Media is the same stat co. that saw the writing on the wall for _Gods of Egypt: _Back when the Alex Proyas film trailered on _Star Wars: The

Force Awakens, _Rev4Media noticed months in advance that audiences were turned off by the pic’s first trailer with 50% saying they would never buy tickets to the film. Overseas broken out is

projected between $180M-$200M. Again, these are early predictions and international is always a bear to forecast with number crunchers literally comping every single territory to previous

releases. For perspective, _Deadpool _ opened to a little over $150M in all markets but China (that figure includes Korea, Spain and Italy, releasing a week after the U.S.). _Deadpool _is

R-rated, so the PG 13-rated _BvS_ should do $130M-150M outside of China and another $50M in China. The top three superhero pic overseas openings: _Spider-Man 3 _($230.5M),  _Avengers: Age of

Ultron_ ($201.2M) and _Iron Man 3 _($198.4M).