‘Dark Knight’ Today Became 2nd Highest Domestic Grosser Behind Only ‘Titanic’

COMMENTS (62)

• DK certainly deserve the no 2 spot. If it reaches above 491M, then it will be the highest grossing comic hero after Silly Spidey 1 after adjusting inflation. (FYI, Spidey 1 final gross in 2002 -403M)

  Now it remains to be seen if Nolan can make DK3 even bigger and better or screw it up like many other trilogies that suffered the curse of ’3rd Crap’ curse.

  All this while, when DK2 was breaking the records, I can’t help to think who will better DK2 many daily and weekends records.

  For sure, Transformer 2 is a shoo-in. Maybe Ironman2 and most def the last Harry Potter.

  Comment by Armand — Saturday August 16, 2008 @ 10:15am PDT  Reply to this post

• I was not aware of a curse! That’s interesting! The only comic triology I can think of off-hand that this would apply to, though, is X-Men – with X3 seeing a new director that clearly botched it, after Singer did such a great job with X2.

  Comment by bobisimo — Saturday August 16, 2008 @ 12:22pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Nice to see TDK doing so well. But “deserving” the number two spot? I don’t think “deserve” is really a good term to use with box office, does anyone really think Titanic deserves to be number one based on the quality of the film itself?

  And I’m skeptical that Transformers 2 or anything any time soon will beat many of these records. Maybe some individual days, maybe even opening weekend after a while. But TDK is really one of a kind, nothing else has come remotely close to how it has done. It’s scary when a movie breaks opening weekend records and that’s not the most impressive of the many records it has set.

  Comment by milo — Saturday August 16, 2008 @ 1:08pm PDT  Reply to this post

• The curse: Superman III, Spidey 3, X3, Batman Forever, Blade Trinity, T3, Alien 3, plus a few more genre films I’m forgetting

  Comment by robbaron — Saturday August 16, 2008 @ 1:34pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I doubt we’ll see another movie come close to The Dark Knight numbers. Fewer and fewer people go to movies, ticket prices just keep going up while attendance goes down. Titanic came out just before the wide release of DVD. I’m willing to bet more copies of Titanic were sold on VHS than DVD.

  Comment by Dave — Saturday August 16, 2008 @ 1:37pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Spider-Man 3 made more money than Spider-Man & Spider-Man 2.

  Comment by Dave — Saturday August 16, 2008 @ 1:56pm PDT  Reply to this post

• “I doubt we’ll see another movie come close to The Dark Knight numbers. Fewer and fewer people go to movies, ticket prices just keep going up while attendance goes down.”

  Yes, but movies also keep grossing more and more upfront. You have to remember that Titanic started off with less than $30 million at the box office. It then just kept raking in money for nearly a year. Compare that to today, where a heavily-hyped movie can easily clear $150 million in its first three days. Is it any wonder that so many records have been set and broken in the past few years?

  What’s surprising is that, despite the #2 ranking, Dark Knight is still performing much like Spiderman 3 did. The only difference is that Spiderman made the majority of its gross overseas- while Dark Knight is having to rely on domestic totals.

  To put that into perspective, when Titanic made $600 million domestically, it was also making over $1 billion dollars overseas. Now that’s the kind of ridiculous numbers we may not see duplicated anytime soon.

  Comment by Jake — Saturday August 16, 2008 @ 2:47pm PDT  Reply to this post

• That is correct for opening weekends, Dave, but not cumulative: SM: $403, SM2: $373, SM3: $336. And the drop in quality between 2 & 3 has to be the most spectacular, especially considering the directing/acting teams were the same. I mean, was there one scene where Spidey WASN’T blubbering like a baby?

  Comment by Venom — Saturday August 16, 2008 @ 2:49pm PDT  Reply to this post

• So, starting with day 31 (month 2)of its release/run TDK needs approximately 140 million more to beat Titanic.
  Don’t these summer movies usualy eventually make 100 million or so following the drop off from #1? That seems do-able for TDK as well. AEspecially since Warner Brothers has cleared the space(see you next July, Harry) for leaving it up in selected venues right through Christmas and beyond until — Heath and hopefully the movie itself gets the nod for Oscar.

  Comment by Mel — Saturday August 16, 2008 @ 3:50pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Don’t forget — Greedo Lucas is re-releasing SW in 3D in a year — TDK’s spot may be in jeopardy. The only movie that could realistically take its spot is the last Potter flick. Transformers sequel — 400 mil at best.

  Comment by Alboone — Saturday August 16, 2008 @ 4:51pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Is this why?

  http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article4524352.ece

  Comment by Bingo — Saturday August 16, 2008 @ 6:15pm PDT  Reply to this post

• It’s all a bunch of hype. Ticket prices are higher so BO receipts are higher. Most of these movies are crap anyway, but business is business and it’s good that people w\in the industry have work. But no intelligent person I know would suggest that BO figures bear any reasonable correlation to artistic merit. This era will be largely forgotten due to lack of legitimate stars and conceptual originality.

  Comment by Realist — Saturday August 16, 2008 @ 7:01pm PDT  Reply to this post

• The next Batman will not have one thing in it’s box office favor, the death of one of the leads. I think Ledger’s death is one of the main reasons for the high numbers. The shear curiosity and the appeal that death seems to have to a great many.

  Comment by John — Saturday August 16, 2008 @ 7:50pm PDT  Reply to this post

• With all the money the movie industry is taking in this year, why aren’t congressional Democrats talking about a Windfall Profits Tax on Big Movie??? I wouldn’t suppose they’ve been corrupted by the campaign donations out of Hollyweird?

  Comment by shawn — Saturday August 16, 2008 @ 9:41pm PDT  Reply to this post

• For the Spider-Man 3 numbers I was including outside the US in the totals. Spider-Man 3 beat both Spider-Man & Spider-Man 2.

  I doubt The Dark Knight will make much more than $500 million US unless its re-released at Oscar time.

  Public schools start back up next week here in Columbus. So that’s going to cause a drop in overall box office numbers. Iron Man made an additional $100 million after its first month in the theaters – but it all all summer to do so – Dark Knight doesn’t have that luxury.

  Comment by Dave — Saturday August 16, 2008 @ 9:50pm PDT  Reply to this post

• John: People who keep blaming Ledger’s death for the film’s excitement are either legitimately retarded (Oooh, shades of TROPIC THUNDER) or just incredibly detached social hermits who also happen to be as uneducated as they are socially inept. You’re basically suggesting that the death of one of the film’s main actors has lead to the film becoming the second largest grossing domestic film of all time … think about that. Consider that … consider that you’re implying that so much of the American population was so intrigued by Ledger’s death, which happened months ago and featured no where in the studio marketing campaign, somehow mobilized a record number of folks to go out to the theater to watch a dead actor. That isn’t absurd – it’s downright stupid, and John, if you legitimately believe that, I’d like you to submit your address so myself and other like-minded, intelligent individuals can visit you and forcibly sterilize you.

  Nikki, can you place some sort of intelligence filter on this site? Between people like this and the knuckedraggers who crawl over here from Drudge links don’t really add anything constructive, just try to drag down the general IQ.

  Comment by Frank N. Stein — Saturday August 16, 2008 @ 10:11pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Actually, Spidey 3 did make the most of the three when you look at total worldwide numbers. It was the lowest domestically, but more than made up for that overseas.

  And TDK isn’t performing like Spidey 3 at all, it has blown way past it. You can’t really compare overseas numbers yet because TDK has only been released in five countries so far, some of them small ones. Most big movies seem to make more overseas than domestic, and I expect TDK will follow that pattern – if it does, it could make a billion JUST from overseas tickets.

  And Realist, it’s not just ticket prices going up, TDK is doing spectacularly even when you compare to other movies adjusted for inflation.

  Comment by milo — Saturday August 16, 2008 @ 10:15pm PDT  Reply to this post

• All-time box office numbers are meaningless without an inflation adjustment.

  Here are the REAL figures for the top 5 grossers:

  (1) Gone With the Wind–$1.4 billion

  (2) Star Wars–$1.2 billion

  (3) Sound of Music–$1 billion

  (4) E.T.–$1 billion

  (5) Ten Commandments–$927 million

  The Dark Knight comes in at #43, just behind “The Robe.” Wow. What a blockbuster.

  Comment by riredale — Sunday August 17, 2008 @ 1:07am PDT  Reply to this post

• Dear Mr. Stein,
  Are you having a bad day? I think somebody needs a hug! C’mere, you.

  Comment by Shatnerd — Sunday August 17, 2008 @ 1:18am PDT  Reply to this post

• Call me old fashioned, but Star Wars (1977) still reigns supreme. I believe it had the most FITS (Fannies In The Seats) domestically: 137,786,483 based on BoxOfficeMoJo’s figures vs. 130,890,673 for Titanic (same source). That works our to 62.6 tickets to Sar Wars purchased for evey 100 U.S. citizens vs. Titanic’s 48.9 tickets per 100 U.S. citizens.
  So, the Star Wars ratio of ticket:population was 28% higher than titanic.

  Comment by Mo Jo — Sunday August 17, 2008 @ 2:07am PDT  Reply to this post

• The greatest trilogy failure in history has to be Godfather III.

  Comment by Joe Keeley — Sunday August 17, 2008 @ 3:20am PDT  Reply to this post

• DK at number two alltime? In absolute dollars – yes. However, adjusted for infaltion it’s #43. Gone with the Wind is #1 with 1.43B and Star Wars #2 with 1.26B. So, in todays dollars, the DK only needs another billion dollars to be #1. Good luck.

  Comment by Jasper Jones — Sunday August 17, 2008 @ 5:44am PDT  Reply to this post

• TDK just shows how far hype will take you. Not particularly entertaining and very preachy I’ll take Iron Man any day of the week.

  Comment by Jim — Sunday August 17, 2008 @ 6:51am PDT  Reply to this post

• Frank N. Stein– good going, man. Use a complete fallacy to try to back up your point. Don’t just say that the other person’s point is “stupid”, and that he’s “stupid” for thinking it– I think the majority of us grew out of name calling at that level in, hmm, the third grade maybe?

  Get real. Most of the hype around OPENING WEEK was about Heath Ledger. I can go back and pull the media’s baited breath, proclamations of Ledger’s posthumous Academy Award possibility, and all the extreme hype about “Heath Ledger’s last movie”, if you want me to.

  He had a valid statement, up to a point. Did that account for all that the movie grossed? Obviously not. Was it the reason a LOT of us went to see it? Yes. Perhaps not even a majority, but a large percentage of the people that I personally know went to see it just for that reason.

  Ta.

  Comment by klahsipper — Sunday August 17, 2008 @ 8:17am PDT  Reply to this post

• Frank,

  John’s post stated opinion and some reasons for that opinion. He may or may not be correct, but he stated an opinion and did so as a gentleman.

  Your post said nothing and made you look silly.

  First sentence – 1, 2, 3 insults. Second sentence, summarizing someone else’s position, then asking him to “think” about it. Then you ask him to consider his position. OK, he’s thinking it over now…..Well, maybe not since you never really refute anything. At least throw out something that backs up your own position. Something like “Actor X, died right before Movie X came out in the summer of 19XX, and that movie still flopped” would have gone a long way. Nope, no facts, just insults.

  Then there’s the use of “legitimately” again and talk of sterilization. Sterilization over an opinion on a movie?!?! Sad. If Nikki did place the filter on the site, based on your lack of persuasion in your writing coupled with insults, I think you could get filtered out. You are passionate about Batman, apparently, but you simply make zero points in your post.

  Last sentence – a parting shot at Drudge, who has been statistically shown, in scientific studies to skewer both sides of the political aisle.

  I think you should “legitimately” take a hard look at yourself in a “detached” fashion to make sure “like-minded, intelligent individuals” don’t see YOU as a “knuckledragger” “dragging down the general IQ” and hunt you down to “sterilize” you. To top it off, they might even put the pictures on Drudge. Now that would create some ratings.

  To be truthful, I think you should spend just a little bit less time getting wrapped up in Batman and a little more time listening to the very people who crawl over from Drudge that you hate so much. You won’t. You are blinded right now. That will change though once you have some kids, a house, and something to lose.

  The down-to-earth, brave, conservative, honest, sacrificing, level headed people who “crawl” over from Drudge will be the same people who rise up some day to save the coutry from the people who worry more about Batman than they do about this great nation of ours.

  I dream about that day more than anything……..

  Comment by First Post Here — Sunday August 17, 2008 @ 8:30am PDT  Reply to this post