Spring has sprung in Central Europe but that did not stop fans to flock to a rather dark movie this last weekend: The Batman was the number one choice. And yet, the biggest surprise was a live-streamed concert by the K-Pop stars BTS and a Turkish biopic about a tragic singer.

Matt Reeves’ new take on the dark knight lured theatergoers to screenings all over the country. The DC-Universe film that introduces us to a new Batman embodied by fan-favorite Robert Pattinson and a new Catwoman – hailed as the best one yet – played by Zoë Kravitz, sold 290.000 tickets and raked in € 3,2 million. This means that The Batman is Germany’s fourth most successful release in the past 12 months and has brought a total of 870.000 people to the theaters in only two weeks, many of whom are said to be first-time fans of the franchise. This is attributed to the glowing reviews of the film and even better word of mouth. Not only is there high praise for the movie’s special effects (something to be expected from any Marvel film), but also for the wide array of nuanced performances. “Most vulnerable and subtle” were the descriptions of the two main characters, and the supporting cast was equally lauded. Among them John Turturro, Paul Dano as the Riddler, Jeffrey Wright as the upstanding detective, and an unrecognizable Colin Farrell in prosthetics as the Penguin.

Still going strong is Uncharted in second place with 120.000 tickets and € 1,1 million in its fourth week. The real sensation in the top three is K-Pop’s favorite band’s comeback concert BTS: Permission to Dance on Stage, a live performance that was streamed into 216 cinemas across the country. It drove 40.000 fans to spend a total of almost € 1,0 million.

In fourth place is another new release, Jackass Forever, the wild stunt comedy that seems to have profited from people’s desire to check their brains at the door and forget about the dark world outside for two hours.

The German film Wunderschön rounds out the top 5. It surpassed the 1,2 million ticket mark in its sixth week and with it Die Schule der Magischen Tiere (The School of Magical Animals), as the most successful German production since the beginning of the pandemic.

Another huge surprise is the new number six in the charts: Bergen, a biopic about the legendary Turkish arabesque singer of the same name premiered this past weekend. The film was directed by established filmmakers Mehmet Binay and Caner Alper and chronicles the true story of Belgin Sarilmiser who was blinded in one eye when her husband threw acid at her. After she divorced him, she adopted the stage name Bergen and became a successful singer only to be killed by her ex-husband. In Turkey, she is known as “woman of pain”.  

Sing 2, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Death on the Nile landed in numbers 7, 8, and 9 respectively, with another new release garnering the last spot in the top ten. Pedro Almodovar’s Parallel Mothers which boasts an Oscar-nominated performance by Penélope Cruz, is expected to climb higher next week as Almodovar films are loved by German audiences and usually stay in theaters for at least three months.

In Austria, Parallele Mütter – the German title – soared into second place, right behind The Batman. Belfast is in number three, followed by the Swedish entry of last year’s Cannes festival, director Ninja Thyberg’s Pleasure about a young girl who moves to Los Angeles to become the next big porn star. The rest of Austria’s top ten also differs greatly from their neighbor: even though Wunderschön held onto fifth, the Australian movie June Again moved into sixth place. The release of a German sex comedy from 2015, Schnick Schnack Schnuck premiered in seventh place and Nanni Moretti’s Tre Piani followed in eighth. Death on the Nile and The Card Counter round out the charts.