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Any day now, 2008's biggest blockbuster The Dark Knight will be topping $1 billion worldwide. Warner Bros tells me that it's already reached $997.5 ($528.5 million domestically and $469 million internationally) since its North American release on July 18th. It's already the 2nd highest domestic grossing pic of all time behind only the $600.8 million domestic haul of 1997/1998's Titanic. And it's the 4th highest worldwide grossing pic behind #1 Paramount/Fox's Titanic ($1.8B), #2 New Line's The Lord of the Rings 3: The Return of the King ($1.1B), and #3 Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest ($1.0B). (None of these rankings are adjusted for inflation or ticket prices.)
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Impressive. Depending on how wide its re-release is in January, it has an outside shot at $600 mil still, though that is unlikely. I’m assuming it will shatter most DVD and Blu-ray sales records in a few weeks as well.
HOLY CRAP, Batman!
Biff! Bam! Kapow!
I think the reason why Chris Nolan’s so apprehensive about committing to a third movie is because he knows no matter how good it is, unless the movie reaches similar B.O. numbers, it’ll be considered a failure
I do wonder if Warner Bros. will plan some sort of re-release during the winter, if all this mullings about The Dark Knight’s chances in the upcoming awards actually pay off.
And DK deserves it.
Well, 1 billion is … more than I can imagine
Interesting how it never achieved hyper-blockbuster status outside Nth America. It’s the only film in the top 20 that got less than half its sales in the rest of the world.
In fact if you assume that E.T. and Star Wars benefitted from US only re-releases, then you have to go to #41 Passion of the Christ to find a more single release US-centric box office return.
Japan in particular at $14m (assuming boxofficemojo figures are current) looks like it bombed.
Not adjusting for inflation or ticket prices makes all this breathless box office hype just plain silly. It gives far too much cultural importance to movies released recently and ignores the much bigger accomplishments of older classics.
If theater chains would just release the number of tickets sold, a stat they collect privately but do not share with the public, we could really measure a movie. (Dividing gross by ticket price is not good enough.)
Now if only TDK would get a release here in China, that would be freakin sweet!
How much time will pass between the time when Warner Bros. stops crowing about hitting a billion dollars, and when they declare that the film lost money, and had no net profits?
My guess 0.05 seconds.
Holy Box Office Breaker!
I can’t wait for the DVD release by the way.
The Warner Bros. legal department would like to note that the film didn’t make money and will therefore pay no points.
Meh.
For my money, the best Batman movie yet and easily one of the best, if not the best, of the year.
And if a LORD OF THE RINGS movie (and not the best of them) can take the Best Picture Oscar, why not TDK?
From the buzz, it seems that BENJAMIN BUTTON might be the one standing in its way. We’ll see….
The Warner Bros. legal department would like to note that the film didn’t make money and will therefore pay no points.
Comment by Josh — November 10, 2008 @ 11:34 am
Screw that. My deal was based on gross figures.
To whomever said that it weights too highly on modern films, I think that most people (at least within the industry) have checked boxofficemojo’s non-adjusted and adjusted lists. It’s virtually impossible to read a thread on this board without seeing some mention of Gone With the Wind’s staggering 200,000 dollars, non-adjusted. Either way, it’s no 4 on the unadjusted worldwide gross, in the top 30 on the adjusted domestic. And in the end, it’s a great movie. Re Chris Nolan, I personally think he’s buried himself in money just because he can. But I think for a 3rd film, b.o. figures won’t impact his decision. He’s a truer artist than a lot of people working now…he waited a while after Batman Begins to start TDK. I can imagine he’s exhausted from the whole process. But I think he won’t make another film unless he can make it as good (quality-wise, not financially) as TDK. And I doubt WB would care if it only brought in half a billion dollars on a 200-mil budget. That’s still a pretty substantial profit margin.
And deservingly so!
Take that Spidey!
Well, no matter how good Nolan could make Batman 3, there is no way it can make as much money as TDK simply because he already used Batman’s 4 best villians in the span of 2 movies, Joker, Two-Face, Ra’s Al Gul and Scarecrow. The only other A-List villian for him to use would be Catwoman.
P.S. – What is the point in adjusting for a worldwide gross number? There are so many different currencies with their own inflation rates involved it would be pretty convoluted and pointless. Secondly, this whole “adjusting” crap is really ticking me off. Adjusting for inflation is dumb because all those old movies were released many times over a span of years. Take Snow White for example, #10 adjusted w/ $771 mil. Its unadjusted gross is $184 mil and it was initially released in 1937. But Box Office Mojo states that Snow White made $118 of that $184 mil. AFTER 1983! You think the way we keep track is not fair to old movies, I think that nonsense isn’t fair to new movies that get 3 months to make their money. If you wanna make an adjusted list, only include the initial year of release or don’t bother.
Look out for the Riddler in the next one. Perfect foil for Batman. The third one should be a straight up detective movie. The first was one about fear. The second about rage. The third should be about intellect and identity. If you read some of the Riddler’s appearances he’s just as screwed up psychologically as Batman, and no he’s not a second rate Joker. E Nigma has issues!!!!
Adjusted for inflation, these days, seems like it should work in the movies FAVOR! Did ‘Gone with the Wind’ leak on BitTorrent a week after its release? Did the internet buzz about its length and weak second act? Did people forgo it and wait for the DVD? No, cause going to the movies is all they had…they didn’t even have TV yet.
“The Dark Knight” is a movie that I wasn’t fond of. Maybe it is some kind of classic, for most of the public, but my concern was with the lack of a strong female character. Maggie Gyllenhaal is a wonderful actress, but she was wasted in a part that gave her very little to do.
This has been a fascinating story to follow. I thought-and predicted here-that the violence and the downbeat tone would cause a steep falloff after the first weekend. Lo and behold, the audience ate it up and came back for more. That will teach me not to make BO predictions.
Sheeeeezzzzzzzzeee!!!
Batman had to contend with the Joker -
Now Warners has to contend with Turkey!!
Good luck, Alan.
(Just don’t listen to Joe Roth when he tells you to make a Poseiden II, ya’ hear?!!)
Back in the day, Malcovich’s name was being bandied about for Riddler — but this was years ago. Still a great choice tho.
BTW
Actually, box office mojo screwed up- the foreign numbers were 3 million off. (They said 469, but now its around 466) The worldwide total as of 11/25/08 are roughly 995.7 million. Not out of the woods quite yet……………..