Comments (28)

• Any of those word-of-mouth negative nellies still around and still wanna make their voice heard?

  Comment by Adam — July 23, 2008 @ 11:40 am  Reply to this post

• Box office history!! Well deserved.

  Comment by Ryan Bailey — July 23, 2008 @ 11:42 am  Reply to this post

• Just insane numbers, that’s the second biggest tuesday following only Transformers, which opened on a tuesday. This already set the record for opening week after only five days, it could end up beating that old record by 30-40+ million.

  The weekday legs have been amazing, could this beat the second weekend record of 72 million? Potentially fastest to 300M and maybe even 400M?

  Comment by milo — July 23, 2008 @ 11:55 am  Reply to this post

• The Dark Knight seems like it is becoming an iceberg aiming for Titanic.

  Comment by Rob — July 23, 2008 @ 11:58 am  Reply to this post

• ok, i’m really bored at work right now, so i took the time to do my own little box office analysis for TDK’s second weekend.

  so if you look at similar blockbusters (with both good and bad legs): spider-man 1 & 3, Pirates 2, starwars 3, and iron man, their average weekly drop from monday to thursday was 33.3%. and their average bump from thursdays number to the second friday number was 131.564%. so if you apply those numbers to Dark Knight, you get a thursday gross of $16,337,040, and applying the average friday bump gives you a potential second friday gross of: $21,493,663. Then, if you apply a multiplier, I’ll just use Batman Begins, since they both seem to have been affected by good word of mouth, and Begins’ second weekend multiplier was 3.34.

  Apply that multiplier, and you get a Dark Knight second weekend of $71,788,834.

  Meaningless calculations, I know, but its still fun to conjecture what will happen.

  Comment by Adam — July 23, 2008 @ 12:30 pm  Reply to this post

• What I would REALLY want to know is, for instance, how many people bought tickets to the dark knight as opposed to, say, Jaws, or the Godfather, or Star Wars, or Gone with the Wind or any other movie. I think if we didn’t let ourselves be fooled by figures based on inflation and increased ticket prices we could have a more rational, sound and certainly much more interesting and revealing debate about blockbusters and the state of the business. Otherwise, ten years from now a movie to which a third of the people who went to see the dark knight buy tickets to will be declared “the biggest movie of all time”. It is all a falacy, fueled by studios that base the stock-price on public perception and huge figures that reflect only one side of the picture. I for one would like a more intelligent analysis of box office issues. No other industry uses figures based on gross. Publishing measures success in units sold, as the record industry does, or any other industry. What I find amusing is how we are duped by the studios to believe this b.s on gross figures and parrot it to the four winds as if it were the revealed truth from the heavens. It is, I guess, another example of publicity passing for information. That somebody that Nikki plays into the game is, at least, depressing. Just a thought. I know one can make the calculations, but then again, who really does?

  Comment by rick — July 23, 2008 @ 12:48 pm  Reply to this post

• And by the way, I think the Dark Knight is a terrific film and deserves every dollars it makes. I just think it would raise the level of debate if we introduced some rational analysis on gross figures in general. Greetings to all, and enjoy the movie if you haven’t yet. Well worth the inflated ticket prices, for once.

  Comment by rick — July 23, 2008 @ 12:50 pm  Reply to this post

• I expect TDK to defy all comparisons and conventional wisdom about drops in the second weekend/week for blockbusters. I’m going for my third viewing this weekend!

  Comment by Sandy — July 23, 2008 @ 12:57 pm  Reply to this post

• Another calculation – to get the record for biggest second weekend, it needs a drop below 54.5%. Considering the amazing weekdays, seems pretty doable.

  Comment by milo — July 23, 2008 @ 1:16 pm  Reply to this post

• Will these movie break the all time grossing record of 1.8 billion (titanic)?

  Comment by Roger — July 23, 2008 @ 1:33 pm  Reply to this post

• Wow.

  Goes to show what a well managed, and well made franchise can do. If things keep up not even studio accountants will be able to hide the money.

  Chris Nolan, I salute you, you magnificent bastard.

  Comment by Furious D — July 23, 2008 @ 1:49 pm  Reply to this post

• I predict $80-$90 million this weekend, with The X-Files #2 with $40 million, and Step Brothers either #3 or #4, depending on Mamma Mia!, with around $15 million.

  Comment by Sandy — July 23, 2008 @ 2:06 pm  Reply to this post

• yeah, please. Where are all of the “not all that”, “ok, not great”, “bad word of mouth” haters out there. Obviously, a movie doesn’t do these numbers without repeat business, which means the majority of the moviegoing public recognizes the film’s quality

  Comment by trey — July 23, 2008 @ 3:04 pm  Reply to this post

• I’m predicting about a $75 million second weekend, but it could go a lot higher. Either way, by this Sunday it is very likely DK will have crushed the record for faster to $300 millions. Imagine that for a moment: $300 million in ten days. Those are truly inspiring numbers. And what makes this even more interesting is a ton of people still haven’t seen the movie and those who have are racing back to the theaters to see it a second, third, fourth time or more. If this shows the slightest bit of legs (under a 50% drop this coming weekend) Titanic’s record is toast.

  Comment by Mark — July 23, 2008 @ 4:02 pm  Reply to this post

• Rick.

  According to Box Office Mojo, the top 10 films of all time adjusted for inflation are:

  1 Gone with the Wind $1,390,067,000
  2 Star Wars $1,225,462,800
  3 The Sound of Music $979,817,800
  4 E.T. $975,957,800
  5 The Ten Commandments $901,280,000
  6 Titanic $883,019,700
  7 Jaws $881,182,300
  8 Doctor Zhivago $854,051,900
  9 The Exorcist $760,712,400
  10 Snow White $749,920,000

  Comment by Joe Cool — July 23, 2008 @ 5:30 pm  Reply to this post

• For my friends and myself — and I’m 54 years old — we saw it in a regular theater and now will be seeing it this weekend in IMAX. This is a movie that has so much in it, I feel I have to see it again. I am still chilled and stunned by that scene outside the hospital when Joker is pushing those buttons. Heath Ledger. Wow. I have to see it again.

  Comment by Steve Schalchlin — July 23, 2008 @ 5:42 pm  Reply to this post

• Also, when TDK reaches $435,005,300, it will become the highest grossing film in Warner Bros. history… even factoring inflation. #1 right now is Blazing Saddles, and #2 is the original Batman with $433 million. So even including inflation, this film is performing phenomenally.

  Comment by Sandy — July 23, 2008 @ 5:59 pm  Reply to this post

• rick,
  You have a point about the amount of ticket sales, but its too late to do that as the official measure since there probably isnt any information about number of tickets sold for movies like Gone with the Wind.

  I’ve heard people say that grosses adjusted for inflation should be the official benchmark, but that wouldn’t be any better than today because new movies would get shortchanged, no new or recent movie would ever be able to do better than an older movie.

  Bottom line is that the movies that have staying power and have alot of repeat business do well. Star Wars is still the 2nd highest grossing movie in US history despite the fact its more than 30 years old.

  P.S. – just because ticket prices will be higher doesnt mean that every future movie will break records if the films aren’t deserving of it. There are countless reasonably successful films that dont even crack the top 40 either because there target market is too small or the film isn’t anything above average.

  Comment by TheaterFan — July 23, 2008 @ 6:33 pm  Reply to this post

• I’m dying to see it. If only I can get a babysitter…

  Comment by Geoff — July 23, 2008 @ 6:39 pm  Reply to this post

• Yikes indeed!

  DK is really powering up the charts. Sure to make another 80M before Friday comes around.

  Well, I guess it’s no brainer now that DK is going to outdross the 2nd highest movie domestically which now is with Star Wars Ep4.

  But I don’t think DK will take over the crown from Titanic. With today’s viewers viewing habits, just not possible. But DK will probably be the 1st movie to gross more than 500M. So far none has come close to it

  1 Titanic 600,788,188 1997
  2 Star Wars 460,998,007 1977
  3 Shrek 2 441,226,247 2004
  4 E.T 435,110,554 1982
  5 StarW1 431,088,301 1999
  6 PoTC2 423,315,812 2006
  7 Spidey1 403,706,375 2002
  8 StarW III 380,270,577 2005
  9 LOTR3 377,027,325 2003
  10 Spidey2 373,585,825 2004

  Comment by armand — July 23, 2008 @ 7:08 pm  Reply to this post

• Sorry, but this is NOT the movie to dethrone Titanic. If it gets to $400M, awesome, but it won’t get to $500M. Forget Titanic, the next movie to make $500 million domestic will have something to brag about. Assuming tickets aren’t $25 each by then. Then it’s not so impressive. James Cameron need not worry about his all-time record falling anytime soon.

  Comment by James Cameron — July 24, 2008 @ 1:14 am  Reply to this post

• Just wanted to make a point about using ticket price inflation for comparison. Most of the movies in the top adjusted box office list played in a time without home video (and impressive home theaters), so if people wanted to see them they had to go to the movie theater. The Dark Knight will be on DVD and Blu-Ray by X-mas.

  I certainly agree comparing box office without an adjustment is flawed, but there’s more going on than just ticket price inflation. Don’t know that there’s a perfect means for comparison.

  This movie was incredible. It lived up to all the hype and made up for several underwhelming 2008 releases (including a certain old man with a bullwhip).

  Comment by JasonC — July 24, 2008 @ 3:38 am  Reply to this post

• Emma Thompson and Chris Nolan did a wonderful job producing !

  Comment by Jacque Bennett — July 24, 2008 @ 4:04 am  Reply to this post

• Rick, here’s the link for that chart.

  http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm

  Finally saw it last night – it was a great movie with a few flaws that bugged me a little bit but didn’t ruin it for me. Glad to see it take the records away from the lousy Spidey 3, but as far as I’m concerned not the best superhero movie ever (probably Spidey 2?), nor is it oscar material overall.

  Ledger was simply amazing, and all oscar talk is right on the money, it’s not just sympathy for his death. He deserves a huge amount of credit for both the quality of this movie as well as its box office success.

  Comment by milo — July 24, 2008 @ 9:04 am  Reply to this post

• In regard to Rick’s comments about knowing the number of tickets sold, I would like to know that as well, but don’t entirely agree about them being the entire story,and I’ll make my point with Gone With the Wind:
  It grossed domestically: 198 million with inflation that would be 1,390 million. Far more then even Titanic made. But then you’d be forgeting the differene in ticket price, back in 1939 the average ticket price was 24 cents, if you use the same inflation scale from the box office total that would put by today’s standards Gone with the wind at $1.68 to see, way way less then current ticket prices. It’s easy to see why it generated so much money, people had no internet and tv, and with insanely cheap movies out, with little other film competition, no rental/on Demand, people just kept seeing the same movie over and over again in the theateres for this insanely cheap price. Imagine if Dark Knight was the only film out all summer long, and tickets were 2 bucks. Everyone would go see it 3 times. So what do you use to gauge a film’s success? Profit margin? Ticket sales? Dollar Amount? Anyone could pick anything, but it would be fun to have all the facts.

  Comment by tONY — July 24, 2008 @ 9:14 am  Reply to this post

• I wonder how this affects the X-Files opening this weekend. Does it take away from it, or does high Dark Knight attendance mean sold-out shows and thus overflow to other films?

  Comment by matt — July 24, 2008 @ 9:42 am  Reply to this post

• In my wildest dreams I couldn’t imagine the movie doing these kinds of numbers or getting such an overwhelmingly positive response. And I fully expected the movie to be excellent, which I thought it really was–no letdown.

  I guess one thing I didn’t take into account were the numbers of people who saw BATMAN BEGINS after its somewhat modestly successful original run at theatres. The DVDs and even cable TV showings built the Batfan-base up to pre-Joel Schumacher levels again. People saw the quality of Nolan’s filmmaking and screenwriting and knew this one wasn’t going to disappoint. (To say nothing of the Joker/Ledger factor.)

  I’m impatient to get a second showing in…when the movie was done at my first show, a friend of mine said “I feel like I’ve been punched in the stomach repeatedly.” That a “comic book” film can do that I think really says something!

  Comment by Guy Fawkes — July 24, 2008 @ 10:57 am  Reply to this post

• After living in Los Angeles for a few years and now living squarely in the midwest (suburbs of Chicago) i always try to gage how the movie plays out here compared to the coasts. For what it’s worth, i saw i last night (thursday) at a Regal 20 screen theater (with an IMAX, which continues to sell out all its shows, including a 12:50am every night since opening.)

  I went to a 9:00pm show and the theater was about 75% full, with the movie basically playing on the half hour through 1am. When i got out of the movie at 11:45, the theater was packed. People pouring out of it and people pouring into it to see late shows, on a Thursday. After experiencing all the “event” movies of th past 15 years, i feel like this one takes the cake – even inside the theater i felt a palpable sense of excitement/bewilderment as the movie unspooled. For me it crystalizes why i still love going to the theater to see big extravaganzas…

  Comment by AJ Denman — July 25, 2008 @ 12:09 pm  Reply to this post