Batman v. SupermanA critical thrashing didn’t seem to stand in the way of "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’s" easily dominating the box office this weekend. The Warner Bros tentpole earned $170.1 million in domestic ticket sales, adding another $254 million overseas, for a worldwide opening gross of over $424 million. 

It’s the highest domestic opening for a WB/DC Comics movie, beating out "The Dark Knight Rises" ($160.8 million), "The Dark Knight" ($158.4 million) and "Man of Steel" ($116.7 million) – although not adjusted for inflation.

In terms of all-time superhero movie openings, "Dawn of Justice" ranks 4th, behind "Marvel’s The Avengers" ($207.4), "Avengers: Age of Ultron" ($191.2), and "Iron Man 3" ($174.1).

With a poor 29% critics rating, much of the talk over the weekend was whether the $250+ million movie’s box office success would be hurt by its discouraging reviews. Clearly the audience has spoken. What remains to be seen is if word of mouth is strong enough for "Dawn of Justice" to rule April’s box office and earn its way into the elite club of top 10 superhero movies with $700+ million domestic grosses, and the top five $1 billion+ global grossers. It certainly ranks as one of the most expensive ever.

But with an audience rating (via Rotten Tomatoes) of 73% as of the time of this post, "Dawn of Justice" looks to likely dominate until "Captain America: Civil War" premieres during the first week of May; although it could be challenged by other high profile April releases in family fare like "The Jungle Book" and the PG13 fantasy "The Huntsman Winter’s War").

Sandwiched between all these mega piles of cash will be "Barbershop: The Next Cut," which opens on April 15. It might serve as counter-programming for those who are looking for something that’s more grounded in reality, and I’m very curious to see how it performs, a long 12 years since the last "Barbershop" movie in 2004, and 14 years after the film that started it all – a surprise hit, earning around $76 million (or just about $100 million in today’s money).

This weekend’s top 10 grossers below, including cume.

1 Batman v Superman    $170,100,000       $170,100,000
2 Zootopia $23,138,000 $240,547,409
3 My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 $18,120,000 $18,120,000
4 Miracles from Heaven $9,500,000 $34,127,249
5 The Divergent Series: Allegiant $9,500,000 $46,605,496
6 10 Cloverfield Lane $6,000,000 $56,010,797
7 Deadpool $5,000,000 $349,472,050
8 London Has Fallen $2,926,000 $55,614,857
9 Hello, My Name is Doris $1,700,925 $3,268,689
10   Eye in the Sky $1,001,204 $1,723,311