‘Batman’ Wings Its Way to a Record Opening : Movies: Warners’ action-packed sequel grosses an estimated $46.8 million in sales to outdistance the 1989 original.

Batman returned . . . and conquered.

In its opening weekend, Warner Bros.’ comic book action spectacle “Batman Returns” raced to an all-time film industry record weekend gross of about $46.8 million.

The size of the opening surpassed Warner Bros.’ original “Batman,” which reaped $42.7 million in its June, 1989, opening weekend.

In all, “Batman Returns,” which stars Michael Keaton in the title role and Danny DeVito and Michelle Pfeiffer as his adversaries, the Penguin and Catwoman, accounted for about half of all the movie tickets sold in the U.S. and Canada over the weekend.

The huge opening came as no surprise to Hollywood, which for months had feared scheduling any other movie to premiere the same weekend. It was an acknowledgment of the giant success of the first “Batman,” which grossed about $400 million at the box office worldwide and is the sixth-highest-grossing movie in U.S. history.

But even as the new $55-million production headed for preview showings on Thursday night, reports surfaced again about how the first “Batman” had, ironically, still not earned a “profit” for some of its participants despite all the success. As a result, two of the producers are suing the studio for their share of money.

That mattered little, if at all, to the 7 million or so Batfans who waited in lines across the nation to view the latest scandals in bigger-than-life, sordid Gotham City where Batman resides.

Three Los Angeles area theaters sold more than $100,000 worth of tickets each just on Friday and Saturday: $149,000 at the Cineplex Odeon Universal City Cinemas, $119,000 at Lakewood Center in Lakewood and $111,000 at Mann’s Chinese in Hollywood.

“I’ve liked Batman since I was an embryo,” said Eric Skodis, a 27-year-old musician from North Hollywood, in line at the Chinese theater. Skodis displayed a Batman tattoo on his right biceps and said, “I’m planning to get a Joker tattoo but I don’t have the money for it yet.”

Mark Poirer, wearing a 1964 DC Comics Batman T-shirt, read his Batman comic books and wandered the streets of downtown Hollywood for six hours to pass the time before a midnight show at the Chinese. “I’ve been waiting to see this movie since the first one came out,” said Poirer, 21, a student at DeVry Institute of Technology. He said he’s seen “Batman” eight times.

“People are coming to see it because they were dumb enough to like the first one,” said Aaron Chu, 22, at the AMC Century City Theatres. But Chu, of West Los Angeles, was in line for “Batman Returns” for a second time, having seen a screening the night before. What was bringing him back? “The penguins. The penguins are amazing,” he said.

For its part, Warner Bros. is “ecstatic,” said D. Barry Reardon, the studio’s president of domestic theatrical distribution.

On Sunday, Reardon said the estimated weekend figures established box-office records in several ways. With $46.8 million for the Friday-Saturday-Sunday period (including some Thursday previews), “Batman Returns” moved ahead of last summer’s blockbuster hit “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” which grossed $31.7 million on its first Friday, Saturday and Sunday. But direct comparisons are difficult because “Terminator 2” opened on the July 4 holiday weekend, which last year expanded the weekend to five days. Its five-day total was a record $52 million.

Reardon said “Batman Returns” did $16.8 million in business on Saturday alone, making it the biggest day ever in the film business. “Batman’s” first Saturday in 1989 was $14.6 million.

Even when the Thursday previews of “Batman Returns” are subtracted from the box-office total for the weekend, the gross is $44.5 million--which, he said, is still a record for any weekend. That compares to $40.4 million for the original “Batman” in 1989 (minus its previews).

Industry observers were not certain on Sunday just how much ticket inflation from 1989 to 1991 may have accounted for the record level of business, but some believe that the amount grossed by “Batman Returns” more than kept pace with the cost of tickets. Another factor, some said, is that “Batman Returns” is playing in 2,644 theaters, a record, according to Warner Bros., making it accessible to the widest possible audience. In many instances, theater complexes were showing the film on more than one screen, and some speculate that Warners had more than 3,200 prints in the marketplace. Reardon would not comment on that.

Combined with Warners’ own “Lethal Weapon 3,” which opened May 15 to a weekend gross of $33.2 million, “Batman Returns” puts the Burbank-based Warner Bros. in the dominant position among the major film companies.

Up until the opening of “Lethal Weapon 3,” the Walt Disney Studios’ Buena Vista Distribution company held the largest share of the film-going market, about 19%, while Warners and Universal Pictures held about 14% apiece, according to figures compiled by Entertainment Data Inc. In the month since the opening of “Lethal Weapon 3,” Warners’ share has accounted for nearly 28% of the marketplace, and, with “Batman Returns,” it will increase dramatically.

Reardon said Warner Bros. chief executives Robert Daly and Terry Semel knew from last December they wanted to open “Lethal Weapon 3” the weekend before Memorial Day, “to give it a jump. Then we always wanted to open ‘Batman Returns’ close to the date that the first one opened.”

In addition to the box-office gross that Warner Bros. will split with theater operators, the studio also will earn a portion of retail sales from various “Batman” products that it has licensed. The first “Batman” generated a gross of about $1 billion in worldwide retail sales.

While the studio’s prospects look bright, it’s a somewhat different picture at Time Warner Inc., the parent company. Its chairman and chief executive officer Steven J. Ross recently suffered a relapse of prostate cancer, and rap singer Ice-T, who records for the company’s music label, has come under strong criticism for his song “Cop Killer.”

Meanwhile, two of the executive producers of “Batman” and “Batman Returns” are contesting the studio’s claims about the financial status of the first film.

“We don’t know why they’re making ‘Batman Returns’ when they claim to have taken it in the ear so bad on ‘Batman,’ ” said Thomas Girardi, lawyer for producers Benjamin Melniker and Michael Uslan.

According to the suit, they claim they are owed up to $30 million.

Last week, the Associated Press reported that Warner Bros. said the first film lost more than $20 million. Robert Friedman, president of worldwide publicity and advertising for the studio noted that the accounting reflects contract terms agreed to by Melniker and Uslan.

Top actors, directors and producers negotiate to receive a share of every dollar, or “gross profits,” that a movie generates. But, like many others, Melniker and Uslan are to receive their share from “net profits,” what’s left after a variety of expenses and fees are deducted.

The studio says “Batman” hasn’t paid off all those costs yet. “Their position has not reached a profit point,” Friedman said of Uslan and Melniker, declining to comment further because of the pending litigation.

Times intern Michelle Quinn contributed to this report.