‘Dark Knight’ Wins 4th Weekend In A Row With $26M vs ‘Pineapple Express’ $22M; Batman Now 3rd Highest Grossing Film

COMMENTS (48)

• Keep trying to get friends my age to see Dark Knight but nobody’s biting. High ticket prices, closing the small local theater in favor of an Orlando-style kiddie megaplex complete with no parking and rides for the kids, no smoking, etc has made movietgoing for the Woodstock generation dubious. Maybe I’ll actually have to scrounge up a quasidate, or wait til cable. But I cancelled HBO. Anyway, I have read such good reviews, and alone among all comic book movies have enjoyed the Batman series, so I hope this movie, in Deadline Hollywood terms, hits 600 mill though the ” experts” say it won’t.

  Comment by moraliste — Sunday August 10, 2008 @ 1:22pm PDT  Reply to this post

• TDK Performance to Date: No. 3 on the all-time domestic box-office charts with $441.5 million, behind “Titanic” ($600.8 million) and “Star Wars” ($461 million).

  Studio Prediction for TDK: Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., said TDK should top out at $510 million to $520 million.

  Last Film at #1 for Four Weeks: “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” in late 2003 and 2004.

  Effect of Inflation: TDK would need to reach $900 million to match the number of tickets sold for “Titanic” and $1.2 billion to equal “Star Wars.” “Gone With the Wind” leads all with $1.4 billion in today’s dollars.

  Comment by Harold — Sunday August 10, 2008 @ 2:30pm PDT  Reply to this post

• In a previous post I made the prediction that TDK was going up to 600 million — I take that statement back. It’ll go at least to 530. Which to me is a damn good thing. Star Wars time has come and gone. As far as Clone Wars making a killing at the b.o. — not happening! It’ll make under 10 and a final gross of less than 40 if its lucky.Everytime those trailers played all you heard was crickets People who are fans of the SW franchise like myself have had enough of Lucas’s crap. Time itself being the ultimate critic of all things pop culture has not been kind to those prequels. Watch them again and tell me differently. Tropic looks like the one to beat.

  Comment by Alboone — Sunday August 10, 2008 @ 3:11pm PDT  Reply to this post

• The ‘fanboy’ statement may be true on the coasts (have no way of knowing), but here in ‘flyover country,’ both showings I’ve attended have had an amazingly wide range of audience ages and types, from teens to grandmothers/grandfathers.

  Also first instance of spontaneous standing audience applause on the credit roll (both showings) in my experience, since “Return of the King.”

  Comment by MidWest Guy — Sunday August 10, 2008 @ 3:39pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I would assume they opened on a Wednesday to get ahead of the Olympics.

  Comment by Geoff — Sunday August 10, 2008 @ 4:02pm PDT  Reply to this post

• We don’t use inflation numbers. The Box Office Adjusted for inflation is just fun for “what if?” scenarios. No one recognizes “Gone With the Wind” as the #1 movie of all-time. They all recognize “Titanic”. If “The Dark Knight” was somehow able to manage $602 Million (which it won’t) people would name it the new #1 movie of all-time. It doesn’t have to hit $900 Million to earn that title just as “Titanic” didn’t have to hit $1.4 Billion to earn the title it has now.

  Comment by Brandon — Sunday August 10, 2008 @ 4:51pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Nikki, pardon me for asking this but what’s with this fanboy theory making DK2 a big hit and staying at the top again this weekend. I was with room full of movie-goers of various ages watching the show last weekend.

  There were paying adults in 30s & 40s and families with kids as well. So I’m not sure the theory of fanboys causing DK2 to achieve this feat is true afterall.

  I would say this though, Clone Wars is a fanboy pic and I am sure it will drive Clone to a number 1 B.O this weekend. As much as I would like to think Tropic Thunder would be popular, never underestimate the power of the Star Wars.

  But afterall that’s said and done, it’s an amazing Summer with 3 movies grossing 300M vs 300M in 2007 and we’re only half way to end of the year.

  Comment by Armand — Sunday August 10, 2008 @ 5:16pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Actually, even the adjusted for inflation comparisons are nonsense. You can’t just adjust GONE WITH THE WIND’S box office for inflation, because ticket price increases have VASTLY outpaced inflation. GTW did almost $200M with ticket prices that were at most an average of 36 cents a pop. AT MOST. Which means at today’s ticket prices, GTW would have grossed over 4 billion dollars! At at a time when the U.S. population was like half of what it is today. Pretty impressive, to say the least.

  Comment by Boxofficeinfo — Sunday August 10, 2008 @ 6:28pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Don’t forget, the reason why old movies like GWTW made so much was because of re-releases, something very common in the days before home video and cable. That’s why no film today will beat that gross: it won’t be brought back to theatrical runs every year for 30 years!

  Comment by dhd — Sunday August 10, 2008 @ 7:49pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Are you guys sure TDK won’t get to $600M?

  Seriously. I mean this thing has proven EVERYONE wrong. No one, I mean no one, has predicted this thing correctly at all. #3 movie of all time in 24 days? #1 for 4th wekend in a row?

  Everyone on here said that Pineapple would beat it this weekend and everyone was wrong.

  It will be the number 2 movie of all time in 5 or 7 days. Less than a month in release. That is staggering

  I mean when this thing gets to $500M+, a feat that has only happened once before, are we sure strange things won’t start happening? Will WB start doing things to push it to try and get it to number 1 so it can have bragging rights over Fox/Paramount? Would they leave it in theaters for almost 10 months (Dec 97-Oct 98) the way Titanic did?

  I mean if TDK stayed in theaters the last 3 months of the year, and not leave at the end of Sept, it would surely top $600M with no problem right?
  $10M a week for an extra 10 or 12 weeks.

  And it’s true about the audiences. My dad is even gonna see it this week and he hasnt been to a movie in a decade. But the buzz has him intrigued and THAT is saying something.

  Would WB push back the DVD release date? I mean why not, it’s gonna sell a ton whenever it’s released. Will it sell more than Finding Nemo (number one DVD seller of all time)?

  Everyone who is now absolutely sure it won’t be #1 next week, reach $600M, etc…check your earlier predictions and double check if they were right.

  I’m just sayin’ is all.

  Comment by Cartoons In Bed — Sunday August 10, 2008 @ 8:22pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Including this weekends estimated take. The Dark Knight has made so far is:

  Domestic: $441,541,000
  Foreign: $263,100,000
  Worldwide: $704,641,000

  Comment by mayhemstudios — Sunday August 10, 2008 @ 8:46pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I’ve talked to a couple of people who went to see Pineapple Express this weekend, and they were ‘underwhelmed’…so maybe its not for everyone.

  However, if you don’t like Apatow and his brand of comedy…don’t go see his movies…why you have to come on here and trash the people who did go see it…to the tune of $40 in 5 days…I’ll never understand! I mean, I think a show like Sex and The City, perhaps one of the worst television shows ever…is just as sexist, if not more so…but I didn’t complain or rant on comment boards telling people what trash it is…you know what I did? I never watched it, and I left those who did enjoy alone. I didn’t judge them…maybe I made fun of them with my buddies…but if they got a laugh out of 30something chicks talking about giving head and buying $1000 shoes then good for them!

  Quit trying to save the world from itself!

  Comment by neil — Sunday August 10, 2008 @ 9:18pm PDT  Reply to this post

• The incredible repeat business for Batman is mostly the work of fanboys who want their fave pic to keep setting movie records.

  Nikki, Nikki, Nikki — that’s just utterly unsubstantiated total nonsense, and you know better. In fact, it’s the exact opposite of the truth. (Seriously, was it a typo?)

  Because you not only grossly (exponentially!) overestimate the population of “fanboys”, you grossly underestimate how potently this movie is resonating with audiences nationwide as the event film of the year (which also happens to be one of the very best films of the year — a rare occurrence).

  “The Dark Knight” is a certified phenomenon, the likes of which we haven’t seen in years. It’s not going to top half a billion domestic because of fanboys, but in spite of them, because it isn’t perceived as simply a fanboy comic book movie, but an important must-see cultural event.

  And it actually deserves to be. Go figure!

  Comment by Robogeek — Sunday August 10, 2008 @ 9:45pm PDT  Reply to this post

• TDK has zero chance of making $600.Despite a $158 mil opening weekend TDK has already dropped to $26 mil in its fourth weekend.Titanic made $28.7 mil in its fourth weekend and didn’t drop below $20 mil for another six weeks.At the rate TDK is declining it will make about $15 mil next weekend which will be good enough for 2nd or 3rd place. It will make about $9 mil the weekend after that and be headed to the bargain theaters by weekend 10.

  Comment by Linda — Monday August 11, 2008 @ 2:13am PDT  Reply to this post

• What is the impact of IMAX ticket prices on TDK’s box office? Would PE have won the weekend were it not for the big-screen showings?

  Comment by TorontoTodd — Monday August 11, 2008 @ 5:15am PDT  Reply to this post

• I saw “Pineapple Expres” at a free preview screening and it was jaw-droppingly bad. Hardly anyone laughed and a lot left early. Hey, they hadn’t paid for it.
  Stupid and boring. How many times can you watch two stoners scream in a high-pitched voice “Dude! You just shot me!”? I really hope we stop seeing Judd Apatow movies for a long time (maybe forever.) All of his films think they are WAY funnier than they really are. “The Dark Knight” is an actually film with shading and depth. “Pineapple Express” was written on the back of napkin.

  I agree with the poster who said “you can just see the egos of these young folks being blown out of the water. Was hoping it would tank a little more.”

  If they let “The Dark Knight” play for another couple of months (say until Halloween) I think it definitely has a shot at $600 million.

  Brian Wallace

  Comment by Brian Wallace — Monday August 11, 2008 @ 5:54am PDT  Reply to this post

• The post above is completely incorrect translating Gone With the Wind’s B.O. into ticket sales at 1939 ticket prices.

  What should have given them the clue is that $200m divided by $0.35 is around 570m tickets, impossible given the US population was around 133m at the time (well unless it was a case of WB-style self-reporting)

  Gone With The Wind premiered in Dec 1939 and stayed in general release to 1941, it’s first release lasted over two years. It was then re-released to theaters in (at least) 1942, 1947, 1954, 1961, 1967, 1974, 1989 and 1998.

  Finally the metric used to adjust box office *is* the average ticket price, not some average inflation rate. Play around with the All Time Adjusted chart on Boxofficemojo to learn what the prices used are (which happens to be 23c to 25c in 1939-41.

  Comment by DH — Monday August 11, 2008 @ 7:20am PDT  Reply to this post

• I think the argument about “ticket inflation” is a valid one.

  Actually, the numbers being given are not based on the inflation rate of US currency, but rather the average ticket price as reported by NATO multiplied by actual ticket sales. So the original Star Wars sold about 145 million tickets in 1977-8, and then sold another 27 million tickets in its re-release in 1997 for a total of about 172 million tickets, or about $1.2 billion at today’s ticket prices. ET sold about 147 million tickets, or about $1 billion at today’s prices. Titanic sold about 130 million tickets or about $910 million at today’s prices.

  If TDK peters out at the $510 million mark, it would have sold only 73 million tickets at today’s average price of $7 per ticket. That’s half of what Titanic and ET sold and 100 million less tickets than Star Wars sold.

  It just puts things in perspective. TDK is still the biggest movie of the year, but without the ability to play for months in theaters, it will be extremely difficult for any film to sell as many tickets as those in the past.

  Comment by Dan Zee — Monday August 11, 2008 @ 8:15am PDT  Reply to this post

• Knocked up and superbad were really good, but these Apatow crew actors (Rogen, Segal, Danny McBride in particular) are completely one note. And, my biggest problem; Judd Apatow needs to learn how to cut and edit a freaking movie and Sony needs to stop giving him so much control. I could have instantly cut a good 15-20 minutes from PE. The lag was ridiculous.

  Comment by RufusTfirefly — Monday August 11, 2008 @ 10:06am PDT  Reply to this post

• I agree with “Cartoons in Bed” above.

  The same people who say there’s no way TDK could
  reach $600 million are probably also the same
  ones who thought it “impossible” that the U.S. could
  beat France last night in the Olympic swimming pool.

  Once TDK crosses $500 million, a popular momentum will build to see if it can beat Titanic. It has a reasonable chance of hitting $600 million if Warners just keeps it in theatres until the end of the year.

  And if Warners were to re-release it with an extra
  scene or two, well, the sky would be the limit, don’t you think?

  Comment by Altamont69 — Monday August 11, 2008 @ 10:16am PDT  Reply to this post

• Yes, the Dark Knight has dropped to 26 million after 4 weeks but with a 441 million domestic cume is that really that bad or surprising. The real questions are how much is left out there to get and how long will they leave it in the theaters.

  Take a look at similar movies that achieved that much money (Shrek 2 & Phantom Menace). Once they started hitting $25 million weekends they still had about $90 million and $150 left pocket yet. My guess is DK gets about $110 million to break the $550 million barrier and then it’s a matter if they want to pull it or not.

  Is it worth it to the studio to go for the extra $50 million or capitalize on DVD sales toward the end of the year. It will be interesting to see what happens.

  Comment by Hans Schneider — Monday August 11, 2008 @ 12:06pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Re-releases don’t make much money anymore.Phantom Menace a film that held up much better week to week then TDK made about $2 mil when it was re-released in the winter after its initial summer run. Gladiator a film that had multiple Oscar noms and won best picture made about $1 mil when it was re-released during awards season.The Passion bombed in its first re-release making about $300K. Both The Passion and Gladiator were released in theaters after being released on dvd.TDK is supposed to be released on dvd in Dec. TDK has this one chance to reach Titanic and its already fallen behind on weekends.

  The film that make money from re-release are the ones that are brought back to theaters after many years of being off the big screen like The Star Wars Trilogy and ET. The 100th anniversary of the sinking of Titanic is 2012, that would be an ideal time for Titanic to return for a limit run.It will have been 15 years since the film was last on the big screen.

  Comment by Linda — Monday August 11, 2008 @ 12:34pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Per DH above, “The post above is completely incorrect translating Gone With the Wind’s B.O. into ticket sales at 1939 ticket prices.”

  Okay, I stand corrected.

  However, the real issue is that the all-time box-office list is just plain silly. Comparing numbers from different years, let alone different decades, is really a pointless exercise and means very little. There are just too many factors that change year to year, including inflation and changing ticket prices, to make comparisons have any meaning.

  Why can’t we just agree that TDK is a the number one movie this year and a cultural phenomenon and leave it at that?

  Comment by Boxofficeinfo — Monday August 11, 2008 @ 8:35pm PDT  Reply to this post