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I’m no joker: the Warner Bros comic book caper achieved this domestic gross milestone Saturday on its 30th day of release. As of Sunday, The Dark Knight‘s North American cumulative stood at $$471,493,000, ahead of Fox’s Star Wars (incluing all re-releases) with $460,998,007. No. 1 is still Paramount’s Titanic with $600,788,188. Of course, none of these totals are adjusted for inflation, or higher ticket prices, or number of tickets sold, etc. This weekend, the latest Batman installment was knocked out of No. 1 after 4 straight weekends as the top movie at the box office. It finished #2. For the full weekend b.o. report, see my ‘Tropic Thunder’ Rumbles Box Office; ‘Dark Knight’ #2, ‘Clone Wars’ #3.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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@shawn, you’re a moron. The profits from these movies doesn’t even come close to comparing to the windfalls collected by the oil industry…who also gets tax breaks and other FREE money from our government.
Keep your political horse**** to yourself. This is an entertainment forum.
I think a lot of non-fans are seeing TDK because of Heath’s death … I sincerely doubt that a superhero movie will ever perform as well as this or the SM films. Why? – Ghost Rider, Fantastic Four, Superman Returns (UGH), et cetera. I almost didn’t see Iron Man because of all the superhero flops I’ve wasted ten dollars on.
Not to dis the film or anything, but I think these numbers are inflated by curious moviegoers; much like the Titanic numbers were inflated by tweens seeing the film eight times. Star Wars was re-released, but that is the only movie on the short list that I think has a wide enough appeal to really deserve its spot. Just my opinion.
While Ledger’s death may’ve piqued some curiosity in those who otherwise wouldn’t have seen TDK, it still wouldn’t be enough to compile numbers near half-as-good as the one it currently enjoys.
What’s doing it is Ledger’s performace lives up to the hype, the picture is well-acted, edited, produced, directed, scored, and … nearly any other title you can find among the credits! This picture also helps fans forget the Val Kilmer/George Clooney attrocities released in the ’90s. (Now, if something could help us forget Clooney-tunes altogther …)
Frank N. Stein: Is there a reason you feel the need to be such a dick?
Recession? What recession?
To my dear, dear First Post Here: I appreciate your attempt to mask your hurt feelings based on the Drudge quotes, but all your intellectual grandstanding doesn’t successfully hide the blatancy with which you’re feebly, limp-wristedly swatting back at me. Also, thanks for the strawman argument about caring more about Batman than this “great country of ours”; that’s what this thread needs more of, some saccharine patriotic nonsense to blur any actual topic or point, just a lowly device to try to demean someone. Yes, you must be a patriot, my poor, deluded friend – why, only a true patriot would call into question other’s patriotism, right? Sterilization would be far too easy on folks like you – we don’t need to fear you passing your pathetic political views on to others since procreating for your kind is entirely out of the question. Instead, your type simply need to be dealt with swiftly and ruthlessly, like the bothersome dogs you are. I cannot emphasize the amount of simultaneously hilarity and nauseating idiocy within these lines: “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.” You truly are a worthless shell of a human, unable to understand or comprehend the world around you, instead clinging to these ridiculously operatic overtures about political movements … not to mention any look back at any of the comment sections linked from Drudge is chock full of absolute anti-intellectualism side by side with that friend of American politics, Complete Uneducation. So don’t whine to me about “caring less about Batman,” you middle aged twerp; I’m sure you think someone, somewhere is so thrilled you toed the line, but the sad reality is … well … no one does, no one will, and hopefully, just hopefully, soon you’ll close your eyes and never open them, and we’ll all be better off for it.
Do try and keep the Norman Rockwell-inspired monologues about “good, hard, salt-of-the-earth people rising up” to the Breitbart comment boards where you and your ilk congregate to mutually masturbate in some sort of brain-defunct orgy. It’s unbecoming, and frankly, we’ve already strayed far enough away from the topic.
That topic is, of course, the fact Ledger’s death had little to nothing to do with the success of THE DARK KNIGHT. Period. To think otherwise is a fantasy … absolutely illogical. Thanks for playing, kid, now go read a book and let the adults talk.
Oh, and to Chad: it’s because I love this country so much I felt the need to be a dick.
Whatever your belief or thoughts on this issue, one thing is fact. TDK is the most popular comic-based movie ever made. Kudos to Chris Nolan and his team!
Too bad that such an average film gets to no. 2. If it weren’t for all of the flaws such as, how did the Joker plan and execute everything (i.e. putting barrels of explosives on those ferries) or how did the mob run city not know anything about the Joker or that Batman could have justifiably killed the Joker with his GUNS(!) on the motorcycle thus SAVING countless lives, it would have been excellent. Batman has been pussified and everyone thinks it’s awesome.
Us knuckledraggers are truly impressed by Mr Stein’s verbal diarrhea. Another example of how a certain group of people want something to be the case and so they talk, or in this case type, incessantly and passionately until they believe they have actually bent reality to what they wanted to believe in the first place. Or maybe Mr. Stein is just a pompous jackass who thinks we all care what the hell he thinks every five seconds. Maybe you could filter that asshole Nikki.
It would be more interesting to see how DK and other recent films rank after an adjustment is made for inflation. I understand Gone With The Wind would be several times more than Titanic DK. When it comes to viewers and cable TV and DVD sales and rentals then the actual number of times a film is seen would be something else again. Maybe someone can find a formula for that.
Mr. Stein……….looks like somebody found themselves a dictionary. Good job on all those long, fancy words to throw in your last comment.
Seriously, its a Batman movie! Don’t get so hot and bothered by what people say about it.
Speaking of which, do you honestly think that Ledger’s death had NOTHING to do with the kind of money it’s bringing in??? To use your own adjective on you, you’re stupid if you believe that. The man played a phenominal role and was getting great reviews regarding it. Top that with his early passing and people become more curious about it.
If you want to believe it had no effect on the box office, more power to you. Just remember, don’t get so mad over a comic book movie; actually any movie in general. There are more important things to worry about then why a movie did so good in the box office.
So Frank, take a couple of breaths, put down the dictionary, and get over it.
Its not a curse when the studio intentionally looks at profits. Maybe someone with some hard facts to share can validate this, but I suspect that Spiderman 3, Superman 3, Blade Trinity, and X3…ALL MADE MAD MONEY. Some may have had to wait to recover costs in home video, but I stand by my suspicion. I figure that the studios will churn out garbage if allowed to. Marvel really didn’t have much say in what happened to its properties before Marvel Films assumed control, and WB has never really given a S**T about the DC Stepchild.
CHRIS…
Oil is a necessity.. not entertainment.. Next time you bash oil, try to understand that we can’t live without it. Moron
This is all rather silly. The only reason it’s that high is because of inflation. At the time of this writing (Sunday 8/17/08), the movie is #39 behind “Beverly Hills Cop”. Box Office Mojo keeps a running tally. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm
Keep digging, Frank. There must be a cliche insult you’ve missed.
Right or wrong, we can all agree that Frank N. Stein has too much time on his hands.
That said, I think people are curious about Ledger’s performance not because he’s dead, but because his work was simply the best thing in a good movie. If you disagree, I ask you this: do you think “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus” will gross $500m domestically?
Normally, an actor’s death doesn’t add extra gross to a movie and in fact is usually considered box office poison, with the exception of James Dean’s last two movies and maybe “The Crow”. If you believe otherwise, then you must think that “Wagons East!” was John Candy’s biggest hit.
Wait until a full Silver Surfer Movie comes out. The greatest story never told.
You’re all self-deluded morons if you legitimately think Ledger’s death played a vital role in the performance of THE DARK KNIGHT; we’re talking about a film with a huge marketing campaign that commenced, what, two years prior to release, a major, iconic property with built-in awareness as well as the fact the film is a direct sequel. I wouldn’t deign to argue the quality of Ledger’s performance – he’s wonderful – or the obvious appeal of the character – but I just don’t see how a rational person can see Ledger’s death as a major motivating factor in getting butts in seats. For a tiny percentage, maybe … but we’re talking about a film with enough awareness and reach to become the 2nd biggest domestic grosser of all time. If it were that easy, I’m pretty sure the studios would start recruiting death squads for their summer flicks …
Like I said, I think there’s a HUGE differentiation between what Ledger’s presence and performance and the fact he died … some people, like our old friend John, seem unable to parse one from the other. I think pointing to Ledger’s death as some hugely significant factor the THE DARK KNIGHT’s performance is not only illogical and, frankly, tawdry, but undermines a wonderful (albeit flawed) film. Simple as that.
Oh, and all you kids with the snarky comments – good for you, glad to see you’re actually dusting off your creaky, rusty, limited understanding of the English language to churn out some real sustenance. Seriously, good for you kids; writing and read is fun, and good for you, and maybe my efforts here will, in some small way, encourage you to take up literacy and actually transform yourselves into meaningful, useful, intelligent, and informed citizens.
Except GDixon. That guy’s a pedophile.
DHD: Glad to see someone actually thinking rather than knee-jerk struggles to articulate monosyllabic grunts.
Also, Jason, I’d be more than happy to e-mail you a few “Words of the Day” to help you get your own vocabulary up to speed. I try to do my best for the functionally illiterate. Didn’t know having a large vocabulary was a bad thing, but then again, you’re probably not the kind who values intelligence anyway …
Sheesh, I guess I’ll go way out on a limb here what with the minor threads of cultural bitch-slapping going on here and just say that I was truly excited about this movie ever since A) the sheer genius of the Nolans’ “Batman Begins”, 2) my faith in that genius reinforced by “The Prestige” and an awareness of ground-breaking film-making apparent in “Memento”, C) the first notice that a wonderful actor like Heath Ledger was hired for the role and D) the incessant chatter extolling the script itself for TDK on the Web. Maybe a lot of people unfamiliar with the first movie checked out TDK because of Heath’s passing, but I just feel in my gut lots of folks were just like me as per above.
God, it’s just a movie! Why don’t we ALL read a book and don’t let any of the adults talk!
You know…before The Dark Knight came out, no one really talked about adjusted gross, It’s long been established that Titanic holds the #1 spot in total gross. Now that a Batman film has come out in a Marvel-loving world, people are playing it down by saying that “it’s only #39 in domestic gross!”. Considering that countless numbers of films have been made since 1900…I still call that an accomplishment.
Now…adjusted gross is merely fun trivia. The Dark Knight is #2 on the list that matters. Deal with it.
I had just about given up on _going_ to movies when I strolled into my local video store and browsed the titles a couple of years ago. When my eyes casually settled on Batman Begins, I shrugged and said to myself, “well, can’t be all bad with a cast like that.” I cannot even begin to express how completely blown away I was when I finally saw it. Everything was perfect; the tone, the acting, the production, and, more than anything, the screenplay! I really regretted not seeing it in a proper theater as I thought, “I can’t wait for the sequel.” That from someone who had all but given up on the moviehouse.
I think what Heath Ledger’s death did for a fan of the first film was to turn him or her into an activist on TDK’s behalf. If TDK does eventually overtake Titanic in raw dollars (and I hope it does), it will be the result of said individuals selling the film on its incontrivertible merits to friends, family, and anyone who will listen.
You’re the man Greg! If somebody had the balls to do the Silver Surfer Origin story right — then without a shadow of a doubt it would be the best comic book superhero movie ever made. But it’s Hollywood…so it’ll never happen.
Brandon,
No, you are incorrect — people have talked about inflation-adjusted grosses for a long time, including when Titanic was breaking box office records back in 1996.
At the time, people made the (correct) point that Gone with the Wind made more “real” dollars at the box office that did Titanic — meaning, in 1933 Gone with the Wind was a bigger money-maker than was Titanic in 1996, or is Dark Knight in 2008.
Once in a while I make the mistake of reading a post at some random website and responding. I wrestled with the pig. He enjoyed it. Someday I’ll learn to stick with hard work, friends, family (and dragging my knuckles) rather than verbally sparring with a faceless kid who is full of himself. My mistake.
However, I gained some perspective today. While at least one person here insulted people all day long, I worked in the sun and landscaped a yard. I feel good knowing that 20 years from now by daughter will still enjoy and benefit from the work I did today. I doubt the insults thrown about today will stand the same test of time.
And by the way The Dark Knight was a badass movie, but I too believe that Ledger’s death did contribute to the box office. Just my opinion though.