Batman V. Superman: Buy The Hype With This Stock?

After a soft 2015 for Time Warner Inc TWX’s Warner films, Batman V. Superman (BvS) is finally debuting on March 25, kicking off a series of 10 DC Comics films the next 5 years. Given the importance of BvS for the DC franchise, the UBS Evidence Lab undertook and shared an analysis of social media data to determine the movie’s potential.

The firm projects a $150 million to $200 million U.S. opening weekend, considerably above recent industry tracking estimates of $120 million to

$140 million. The analysts arrived at this conclusion by analyzing several elements including YouTube trailer views and Facebook likes. The evidence suggested a social profile similar to Avengers: Age of Ultron, which had a $191 million open on May of 2015, and above Deadpool, which had a $132 million opening on mid February.

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So, the experts, led by Doug Mitchelson, are assuming a $175 million U.S. opening and global box office of $1.04 billion. This suggests upside to the company’s EPS guidance for 2016. After undertaking a bottoms-up analysis of 91 films for Warners between 2013 and 2017, the analysts think their 2016-2017 Warners estimates were low -- including a Tarzan loss this summer.

Consequently, the experts also raised their 2016 EPS estimate by $0.05 to $5.41, and their 2017 EPS estimate by $0.06 to $6.10.

UBS maintains a Buy rating and $87.00 price target on shares of Time Warner Inc.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above.