Despite a dismal round of reviews by critics around the world and laments from fans and film aficionados, Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice the fought its way to not just a good box office opening, but to an amazing result that could have the film's marketing team doing guest lecture circuits at the world’s top universities in a few years time. In its domestic debut, it took $170.1 million and as of now it can count among its accolades a record March opening, the fourth biggest launch for a super hero film, and the sixth biggest debut weekend at the US box office in history.

Its foreign unveiling was equally impressive. BvS made $254 million in 66 markets and earned itself another honor as Warner Bros. second biggest overseas opener of all time after After Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 which took off with $314 million back in 2011. It launched on the same day in China and in the US, which led to a $57 million opening in the Middle Kingdom. England was good for $21.54 million, while the picture took $18.6 million in Mexico. Brazil was worth  $12.2 million, and South Korea added $10.5 million. Another $10 came from Australia. Its global cumulative after one weekend is $424 million

The film cost $250 million to make and has a reported advertising budget of $170 million, a huge sum on its own that was cut down by the studio’s ties with Time Warner Cable. The coming weeks will tell us whether BvS follows its current trajectory into the billion dollar plus range or fizzles out. However the studio has made a big statement and launched its DC Comics universe to a worldwide audience. Ben Affleck for the first time as Batman, Henry Cavill back as The Man of Steel and Gal Gadot,who appeared in this film as Wonder Woman, will now be synonymous with the heroes they portrayed. And this type of popular reaction is critical for Warner Bros. as they aim to get back into the ring with Disney, who controls the Marvel Cinematic and the Star Wars universe as well as with Universal and Paramount who, with their Fast and Furious and Transformers properties each,  have a guaranteed  billion dollar range film on their slates each year.

Fellow domestic opener My Big Fat Greek Weeding 2 found itself in a similar situation this weekend, enjoying an $18 million launch, well ahead of the $10 million that most insiders were projecting, and in spite of a string of negative reviews. The sequel is again penned by the 2001 original's author and star, Nia Vardalos, and sees the Portokalos family gearing up for another Greek wedding which promises to be both bigger and fatter than the first one. It received uniformly critical write ups, yet resonated well with its 77% female audience, earning an A- Cinemascore. Greek 2 made $8 million overseas as well, taking $3.4 million in Australia and $1.4 million in the UK along with earnings from 26 other territories.

Zootopia meanwhile has reached a global cumulative of $696 million after a $65.6 million fourth frame. Without any major family-friendly competition on the horizon, it may very well keep roaring its way up Disney's all-time charts where it currently sits 5^th overall behind 2013's Monsters University ($743.5 million.)

Here's the week complete Box Office Chart: worldwide_weekend_estimates_march_27_2016.pdf

Next weekend we'll see if Batman v Superman can hold onto its momentum. We'll also get a look at Richard Linklater's new comedy Everybody Wants Some! in its limited opening run, and see if God's Not Dead 2 can replicate the runaway success of the 2014 original.