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SUNDAY 8PM UPDATE: I've just been told by unofficial sources that Warner Bros' The Dark Knight is playing to packed Sunday performances for over $40M and maybe as high as $43M. That would mean a 9th record for the latest Batman installment since Spider-Man 3's Sunday take in 2007 was a record-setting $39.9M. It's also now abundantly clear that the Warner Bros caped crusader will crush the old 3-day weekend non-holiday record set by Spidey 3 last year. So rival studios were wrong to question whether Warner Bros' Sunday numbers were too aggressive! Also, Dark Knight should break its 9th record by beating the all-time weekly tally. Meanwhile, in its first six days, DK will have grossed more than the entire run of Batman Begins.
SUNDAY AM: Warner Bros is reporting The Dark Knight will finish with a total North American weekend take of $155.3M. Here's the surprising studio breakdown: $67.8 million Friday, including those record-setting opening day midnight shows; $48 million Saturday (-29%), and projected $39.4 million Sunday (-18%). So if Sunday holds up, that FSS (Fri-Sat-Sun) non-holiday figure will be enough to snag the record from Spider-Man 3's $151.1 million. But it'll be close. The latest Batman installment did not set a record Saturday, leaving Spidey 3's best-ever $51.3M intact. That Friday to Saturday decline looks steep, but actually they mirror each other without the opening day midnight frenzy. Total domestic grosses for all the movies playing this weekend looks around $253M. That easily shatters the best-ever FSS non-holiday overall record of $218.4 million set on July 7-9, 2006 when Disney's Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest opened. In a successful bit of counter-programming, Universal's Mamma Mia! finished 2nd with $9.8M Friday and another $9.8M Saturday for a $27.6M opening weekend. Overseas, the ABBA musical has made a fast $72.6M in just 11 days. See Top 10 B.O. below...
But debate quietly erupted this morning when rival studios began comparing Warner Bros' box office reporting to their own. Four studios all report numbers below Warner Bros' figures for Friday (around $67.1M) and Saturday (around $47.1M). They also believe Warner Bros' Sunday estimate is too high. Several rival studios are even questioning whether this Batman installment really beat Spidey 3 or not. But cooler heads are telling me that there's bound to be number differences when sums these large are involved, plus there's the added unknown of just how many extra screenings of Dark Knight did theater managers around the country add at the last minute in their cities and towns. "I don't think there is really a controversy. Maybe they are just a little on the aggressive side for Friday. But, regardless, they will break the record." Perhaps rival studio eyebrows wouldn't be raised had Warner Bros not played fast and loose with box office figures before -- most recently, Speed Racer's.
Media By Numbers' OFFICIAL DARK KNIGHT RECORDS SO FAR (in order of occurrence):
1 - LARGEST NUMBER OF OPENING THEATRES WITH 4,366 (MORE THAN THE 4,362 DEBUT THEATRES OF PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END IN 2007).
2 - BIGGEST MIDNIGHT PREVIEW GROSS WITH $18.489 MILLION IN 3,040 THEATRES (BEATS STAR WARS EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH AND ITS $16.9 MILLION IN 2,915 THEATRES IN 2005).
3 - BIGGEST IMAX MIDNIGHT PREVIEWS SET AN NEW RECORD WITH $640,000 (INCLUDED IN THE $18.489 MILLION PREVIEW NUMBER).
4 - BIGGEST SINGLE-DAY GROSS IN BOX-OFFICE HISTORY WITH $67.850 MILLION (BESTS THE $59,841,919 SET BY SPIDER-MAN 3 IN 2007).
5 - BIGGEST OPENING WEEKEND GROSS IN BOX OFFICE HISTORY WITH $155.340 MILLION (BESTS THE $151,116 MILLION SET BY SPIDER-MAN 3 IN 2007).
6 - BIGGEST OPENING WEEKEND GROSS FOR AN IMAX RELEASE IN BOX OFFICE HISTORY WITH $6,214,061 MILLION IN 94 THEATRES WITH $66,107 PER THEATRE. (BESTS THE $4.7 MILLION SET BY SPIDER-MAN 3 IN 2007.) IMAX SHOWING AT FULL CAPACITY $1.9 MILLION ON SATURDAY ALONE.
7 - BIGGEST OPENING WEEKEND OF 2008 WITH $151.340 (BEATS INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL'S $101.137 MILLION FROM MAY 23-25, 2008)
8 - BIGGEST JULY OPENING EVER (BEATS PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST'S $135,634,554 ON JULY 7, 2006).
See the Batman franchise numbers here.
Believe it or not, there were other movies opening and playing at the box office.
In 2nd place, Universal's North American debut of its movie version of the globally popular Mamma Mia! musical proved great counter-programming against Batman. It made $9.6M Friday for what should be a 3-day weekend total of $28.1M, better than Hairspray's $27.4M and what the studio had expected especially since ABBA was never as big in the U.S. as overseas. Exit polling showed that 3/4 of the audience was female, 64% were age 30 or older, slightly more than a third of the audience had seen the musical, while more than half had heard of it but not seen it. The main reasons given for seeing Mamma Mia! were the "musical numbers" (56%), followed by the "songs of ABBA" (49%), “I like musicals” (47%, skewing female), and Meryl Streep (47%, especially among older females).
Sony's holdover Hancock sat solidly in 3rd place with a $4.5M Friday and $5.5M Saturday from 3,776 plays for a $14M weekend and $191.5M new cume. It now has made a huge $444M worldwide. No. 4 was Warner Bros's Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3D, which dropped 47% from a week ago $11.9M for the weekend and new cume of $43M. Disney/Pixar's hit toon Wall-E made $2.9M Friday for 5th by weekend's end with $9.8M and new cume of $182.4M. But the surprise was 6th place Hellboy II: The Golden Army's 71% fall from grace after finishing a big No 1 last weekend. It made only $10M this weekend for a $56.4M new cume. Obviously, the Dark Horse comic character lost out to the way-more-famous DC Comics caped crusader. At No. 7, Starz/Fox's toon Space Chimps opened to $7.3M for FSS. Universal's Wanted was 8th with $1.5M Friday and probably $5.1M for the weekend. At No. 9, Warner Bros' Get Smart took in a $4M weekend and $119.5M new cume. And Paramount's Kung Fu Panda jumped up to #10 with a $1.7M weekend and $206.5M new cume. One week after its debut, Fox's disastrous Meet Dave fell out of the Top 10 altogether.
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I knew it, posted it yesterday. The word I’ve heard that while it’s a great film with a brilliant performance by Ledger, it’s just too dark for families with kids under 10 or so.
I’m not sure it will break Spidey’s FSS record, but it might.
what???
48 mil only? that’s a drop of almost 30% from Friday!
i was expecting a 20% drop or less which would have made it at least 53 mil for Saturday
One thing to keep in mind is that while Spider-Man 3 racked up a boffo first weekend, it had subsequent bad word of mouth due to lack of storyline and the feeling that the stars phoned in their roles. The Dark Knight has excellent word of mouth, which translates into legs.
it will break the record even if it falls 27% on sunday….
27% is not small – spidy 3 fell 22%…..pirates 2 fell just 20%….and a movie like sex and the city(of course…it had a totally different audience…but numbers wise is worth comparing), which fell 34% on saturday, fell 28% on sunday.
so even if TDK falls a big 27%, it gets the record.
Kelly’s exactly right. I saw it on Friday, and the 8-year old a few seats down spent half the movie crying. It’s not a gory movie, but it is a violent one; several moments (the Joker’s “magic trick” comes immediately to mind) are shocking to find in a PG-13 movie, but they’re never exploited for cheap kicks. That said, I hope it pulls out the record, because it is an astounding piece of work: Nolan crams the run-time chock full without overwhelming, the plot always manages to pull out another compelling twist, and the acting is uniformly strong, with Eckhart and Ledger’s performances deserving special mention. As far as the Oscar talk goes, my position is this: If Hannibal Lecter can win one…
Don’t most films blast past the OW record?That was the case with Harry Potter, Spiderman, Pirates and Spiderman 3. Should TDK best Spiderman 3 for the record, it will barely inch past Spidey by about $1.5-2 mil. Not so impressive when you consider increased ticket prices.
I just seen it and it was totally awesome. We had to wait till 1:00 in the morning to see it though because all the other showings were sold out.
It’s not like ticket prices have increased that much over the years, and please don’t use that as an excuse. It is pretty weak. Dark Knight still did great. Had a huge Friday, and was only behind Spiderman by about three million.
but if you consider that The Dark Knight came out late when a lot of other movies are competing and have competed for the public’s attention, unlike when Spider Man 3 and Iron Man which opened the summer season getting all that upfront demand for a blockbuster movie during the summer season. Plus the running time plus the not kiddie-friendly fare.
would of been more if every arclight showing wasn’t sold out
Spider-man 3 came out last year Linda, so how could have ticket prices gone up that much?
You can’t keep on “blasting past” records forever. The Dark Knight certainly did blast past Pirates 2 in similar weekends, although not nearly as family friendly. Spider-Man 3 opened in May, playing on 800+ more screens, and with virtually no competition (unless you count Disturbia in its fourth weekend as such).
Sorry Linda, but if the Dark Knight edges Spiderman, it will be very impressive. The Dark Knight has had to deal with a lot more competition at the box office than Spiderman did. And while Spiderman is a family film, the Dark Knight is not.
I’m one of the people that decided to attend Mamma Mia and save the Dark Knight for another day. I lOVED it. People clapped at the end of dance scenes. It was like being at a live show with much better scenery. At the end, people got up from their chair and danced along to the last spandex number.
It’s pure fun, and everything I remember old movies of the fifties being. I know it’s a thin plot and the three “fathers” can’t sing, but I didn’t care. You’ve never seen a cast look like they’ve enjoyed themselves so much and that enthusiasm picks you up and brings you along for the ride.
And Amanda Seyfried…. she can sing, act and dance. She should be the break-out star of the summer.
I know I’ll think Dark Knight is a great flick when I see it, but Mamma Mia was perfect counter programming this weekend. One woman behind me said she can’t believe that women got Sex and the City and Mamma Mia in one summer!
What does FSS stand for? I was just curious.
I find this number to be to low considering all the southern california Imax shows sold out and most of the regular showings sold out as well. I’m thinking this figure may be revised upward on Monday.
I’m not surprised the movie was successful, but I didn’t realize that THIS was the movie of the summer. Where did that leave:
* Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
* Wall-E
* Hancock
* Iron Man
the movie is not a r-rated movie, it was dark yes but like the pencil scene it happened so fast you couldnt see anything. the joker was dark but not enough for an 8yr. old to be crying. took my 5yr old he loved it loved the joker and everything about the movie. hope it breaks all the records although its a stretch
1
That’s true, Linda. $154 million is not that impressive. It needed to beat Spiderman 3 by at least another 100 to 200 million to awe us.
I’m sorry, but increased ticket prices from last summer? Spider-Man 3’s record came only 14 months ago so I’m pretty sure ticket prices are roughly the same. And $150M is a massive amount of money whether it breaks a record or not. The idea that that many people would go out over a single weekend to see a movie is insane.
“Not so impressive” , “falling 25%!” – geez people, this film is making history and people splits hairs to bag on its offscreen/financial accomplishments. I’m still astounded at a 20 million dollar midnight showing. Someone making a horror film can do something with that existing zeitgeist in the future.
As noted in the article, important to remember that the “drop” from Friday to Saturday has the midnight numbers built in, so it didn’t drop as much as it looks like.
I don’t understand what all the fuss is about.
Nolan still can’t (coherently) tell a story to save his life; Ledger overacts and is actually something of an embarrassment (he wasn’t River Phoenix, folks; get over it), Gyllenhaal remains the most annoying actress on the planet, Bale still sounds like Charlie Sheen when he’s playing “American,”
good actors like Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine are (again) wasted, and the damn thing is a good half hour too long.
And “Mamma Mia!” is the most ineptly directed movie musical since “The Producers.” When are they ever going to learn not to entrust the film version to the stage director (especially if said s/director has never directed a movie before).
I think Rick’s a closet Spider-Man fan…
I also cannot believe the PUNY margin that Dark Knight beat Spider-Man by… I only would have been impressed by a 200 million weekend. And until that day I view Dark Knight as a total failure.
Because Heath brought such dynamism, heart and self to the portrayal of one of the greatest screen villians of all-time…
Because the audiences came in droves, partly in memoriam…
Because it would be a magnanimous gesture that would contribute to making Hollywood and the world a better place to live and work and love…
…perhaps Warner should make a large donation (1% of the gross profit to Mr. Ledger’s favorite charity, or better yet, a program to promote increased awareness of drug abuse and related issues.
FSS — Friday, Saturday, Sunday. and yes, it took me a few hours to figure that out as well.
TDK has more theaters, but with less total screens than Spiderman 3.
Anyways, box office numbers don’t mean a movie is good. Start adjusting for inflation… are you gonna convince me that Independence Day is one of the best movies ever?
Word of mouth helped stop S3 in its tracks. Same thing will propel TDK for weeks to come. Taking into account marketing money spent, S3 was a huge disaster and waste of time.
Spider-Man 3 also had midnight showings (not to mention 3 AM, which I attended), so there is no justification for “sifting out” Dark Knight’s midnight showings and then comparing against Spider-Man 3’s full Friday which includes its midnight showings. This film fell very hard because its audience is fanboys and not kids. Batman Begins was already a stretch as far as being appropriate for kids and now this one is in a new league.
You have to be CRAZY to think Dark Knight is appropriate for any children under 10 or even under 13 probably. It’s absolutely chock full of wall-to-wall psychological horror. The world view it presents is as grim, tragic and sorrowful as can be. And people were saying WALL-E was not a film directed for children. LOL. Wait’ll they get a load of this one. It’s amazing how much the character has transformed in the media from the 1960s TV show to this. I wonder what kind of Power Rangers films they’ll be making in 2035.
I don’t understand what all the fuss is about.
It was about annoying you, and only you. Christopher Nolan spent all that money just so you could be annoyed. And are you grateful?
FSS stands for Friday, Saturday and Sunday
Spidey can keep the records for himself if it pleases him. For all I care, DK is the better movie, no, make that a 1000% better than Silly-Spidey 3.
What impressed me most of DK’s B.O performance was that no one had thought of how DK was going to perform on the B.O 24 months or 12 months ago, being a record breaker and all that. I mean, we all knew that Spidey 2 and 3 1st weekend bow was going to be huge than the 1st after its 1st then record weekend.
So to have this great movie coming out of nowhere and shattering the records and all that, you got to give it to the folks at WB and the cast & crew for achieving what they achieved.
This is directly from Nikki’s blog post last year on Spider-Man 3, “Though SM3 fell -14% Saturday compared to Friday, that number without the midnight shows is actually +4%.”
Meanwhile if you do the math with Nikki’s numbers, Dark Knight made $49.3m on Friday and $48m on Saturday, for a Saturday decline of -2.6%. So it was a bigger drop than Spidey 3’s by 6.6%, if you take out those midnight shows.
I don’t see any rationale for taking out midnight shows though, since it’s an equal comparison as it stands, and these movies show around the clock at many theaters. There were certainly 1 AM and 5 AM showings here all weekend. So why you would just want to sift out the Friday midnight debut makes no sense to me. Midnight is the official start of Friday. It’s not like this was an 8 PM Thursday sneak preview.
So if you just look at the full Friday-Saturday, Spidey dropped 14.2% and Nikki says Dark Knight dropped 29%, a difference of 14.8% in Spidey 3’s favor.
I think Dark Knight is going to have the WORST word-of-mouth among families with children than any movie we’ve seen in a long time. This is NOT a film that should have action figures, breakfast cereal and bubble gum cards advertising it to kiddies everywhere, yet that’s exactly how it’s being marketed.
@Eric:
The reason they drop the midnight amount isn’t because there isn’t a midnight showing on Saturday morning/Friday night. It’s because the initial midnight show shows on numerous screens in each theater. There were 30 simultaneous showings of The Dark Knight (upwards of 8 at 1 theater, all sold out) on Friday morning versus just 5 (1 at each theater) at midnight on Saturday morning.
Inflation taken into account despite being only 14 months ago Spidey 3 would be at 159 mil so even if TDK’s prediction are correct it still doesn’t beat the record with inflation accounted for (which is the only fair way to judge IMHO). By the way Keaton’s Batman total would be 441 mil (still my favoprite Bat flick).
I see Nikki is reporting that “rival” studios are now questioning Warners weekend numbers for TDK. That usually means the numbers are inflated by a large amount. As in Fox with Episode 2 overestimated by 6 mil and Miramax with Scream 2 overestimated by 7 mil.So TDK may not have beaten Spidey after all.
Rival studios questioning the numbers – meaning they doubt it will reach 155mil or they believe it to be higher? I’m leaning more towards the latter.
Spidey had romance going for it. You just *know* a good percentage of males were dragged to it by their women wanting to see the conclusion of the romance. It was a date movie.
Dark Knight? If your woman has pins in her face, then yeah, it’s a date movie.
Who gives a shit if the movie is “too dark” for ten year olds? To all the idiots dribbling on about this ad nauseum as if the movie being aimed at non-kids is a detriment to its box office, ten year olds aren’t the majority on this planet in case you hadn’t noticed. There are actually teenagers and adults in the world. Step out of your mama’s basement sometime and you’ll notice. Not every movie has to cater to snot-nosed little brats you know.
I would have to agree with Eric. The movie isn’t targeted toward kids at all. Anybody want to bet that Dark Knight only did so good because of Heath Ledger’s death? That is how I feel about this film. Angry Marketer got it 100% right and it is almost as if Warner Bros poisoned Heath because that is what it sounds like to me. I am not saying it was deliberate but Heath had to film a lot of night scenes and was likely using drugs to reestablish his normal sleep pattern when he died. If he lived I am sure we would have seen an smaller total take by about $50 million.
Regardless, the movie is going to take a massive fall next weekend. The new X-Files movie comes out and that will have at least a $70 million opening weekend take because there are rabid X-Files fans wanting this movie and the first one did very well at the Box Office.
In second or third (depending on the fall for Dark Knight) will be the new Will Ferrell movie Step-Brothers. Meanwhile the movie of the summer will likely be the documentary American Teen because it is filmed in rural Indiana and not a big city though a scene or two might take place in Indianapolis. Another pick is the Kevin Costner movie “Swing Vote” which opens August 1st and could be big due to the upcoming election.
I would like to remind everybody, including Nikki, that the movie of the summer isn’t always some megablockbuster that grosses millions its first weekend. Sometimes, that movie that is thrown out as an afterthought or is a movie that isn’t expected to do well at the box office. We are quickly approaching that time of year.
EEEEH, It was alright. A little long don’t ya think? Heath Ledger was AMAZING!!!!!! However, he was not in the movie as much as I would have liked.But what do I know? I’m just a casual Batman fan, But a fan just the same. Don’t get me wrong I liked the movie. It was sorta the “EMPIRE STRIKES BACK” of the BATMAN movies. It dark and ends on a somber note.
“I didn’t realize that THIS was the movie of the summer. Where did that leave:
* Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
* Wall-E
* Hancock
* Iron Man
by SomeoneinOttawa”
That is pre-7/18 thinking.
Move on.
All I know Christian Bale and his supporting cast are stronger, better evolved actors in Batman-TDK then actor Tobey McGuire and his cast in Spider-Man 3. There are at least 3 major reasons this movie is gonna be hard to beat once it sets theatrical Record(s).
1. Christian Bale is a fabulous actor his range is like an instrument if given the right notes he makes beautiful movie music.
2. It’s a Christopher Nolan movie, Hello he is a great director with an amazing vision for this particular Batman series. TDK is not cheesy, don’t get me wrong I like Tim Burton’s Batman but I love Nolan’s darker version.
3. Heath Ledger is dead so people want to see his last performance and he does not disappoint, I give you he is the best Joker yet, best villain ever, I don’t think so but definitely up there.
PS
I don’t know how many of you know how to read the title of the movie, but its called “The Dark Knight”, so what part of the title says:
“You should take 10 year olds or YOUNGER to see this heartwarming, fuzzy lil happy go lucky movie”
Exactly NONE OF IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jessy: The Dark Knight is the movie of the summer. Deal with it.
“This movie is not kid-friendly and, there for, it’s not going to make alot of money” I’ve read these types of things all over the net.
Excuse me? But was Titanic marketed to kids? It made over a billion dollars.
I believe the word of mouth on TDK is going to give it legs so that by the end of the year, it will be the #1 movie.
Wow, I didn’t think this many people would be out of touch with reality.
Just skimming this forum, I see people claiming:
- Heath Ledger’s death is the reason the film’s made this much cash(out of all the people that I have talked to that have/will see TDK, none have mentioned it is because of Heath Ledger).
- That the film is NOT a success because it didn’t hit $200 Million… which is just plain stupid and ignorant
- That it’s dropping like a rock because after falling from the biggest opening day of all time, a film should obviously drop by only 5% or less the next few days if not go higher.
- X-Files will make $70 million its first weekend… Wow, good luck to ya, buddy.
- The film is driven by “fanboys”… There’s not enough fanboys to bring in $155+ million. I’m no fanboy and I don’t know anyone that is (”fanboys” are just too damn obnoxious to be around). My own MOTHER wants to see this. I don’t recall her ever dressing up like any characters or reciting lines from back issues of any comic. Unless she has a secret comic-nerd life to balance out her Hummel-collecting life that I don’t know about.
- Whoever “Rick” is; I don’t even think the guy’s seen the films he’s bashing. Please explain to me how the story wasn’t coherent and how these actors were “wasted”. Do you wake up that pissed at the world EVERY day? Get a puppy. It’ll lick your face, melt your heart and the universe might not seem so useless to you.
And then there’s a mention that somehow Batman’s image in the media has gottn to be dark and grim over the years. Obviously all you knew of the character was Adam West and Superfriends.
Bottom line to me is always ADMISSIONS, not dollars. This whole “how much did it make in its first 5 minutes?” crap needs to go. Every summer we go through it. Next year will be Transformers, the year after that will be another bloated summer flick. Records are broken every damn week. I want to see figures of the amount of tickets sold, not the total price. That will put an end to the inflation debate (save for older films that didn’t have the luxary of opening in 4,000+ theaters). But people like to see dollar signs. It excites them.
Alright, that’s anough outta me. Vote Quimby.
Imagine $200 million if the kids weren’t being held out of the theater by the moms!
jeez.
what it boils down to is this:
Nobody liked Spiderman 3. Even fans of the series thought it was garbage.
The Dark Knight is an excellent film. Hardly the masterpiece fanboys are claiming, but at least an 8/10 picture.
Spiderman 3 may have had big box office numbers, but its just simply a bad movie.
Fanboys opened Snakes on a Plane at $15M and Grindhouse at $20M.
Adjust for inflation, take into account 5 year olds, try and position Spider-Man 3 (they didn’t make any nukethefridge.com out of it because it wasn’t worth even that you know) into history books. The Dark Knight is something most people couldn’t even imagine it can be made and nothing ’s gonna change that.
Jessy,
I assume your joking when you say X-Files will have a $70 mil opening weekend? If X-Files opens that high it will be the shock of the year. Also almost no one cares about Kevin Costner, his new movie is likely to bomb whether or not there’s an upcoming election.The start of the summer Olympics on Aug 8 is what’s likely to slow the momentum of TDK and other summer films.
The Spider-man fanboys like Erik and Rick are hysterical.
Oh – I get it now – I see why the studios are trying so hard to get SAG actors to give up their residuals and such – because THEY ARE HURTING SOOOOOOO BAD, RIGHT? This year appears to be adding up to a pretty crappy year for the studios – breaking record after record. Man – sucks for them, eh?
I am delighted beyond belief that things are going so swimmingly well in our industry, so well in fact that in solidarity with my brothers and sisters, I will definitely NOT settle for the current contract on the table giving up everything we have worked so hard to get, so the Studios can take even more of the pie than they already get!
Did someone named Jessy seriously just claim that X-Files is going to make 70 million next weekend? Wanna place bets on that Jessy?
And surprisingly enough, that wasn’t even the most outlandish claim in that post. Did he seriously suggest that Warner Bros. was responsible for the death of Heath Ledger? If these kinds of people are the main representatives of people who didn’t like the Dark Knight, then I think the movie is going to do extremely well. Because, hopefully, there are only two or three hundred people like Jessy left in the world.
And if anyone wants to talk about positive word of mouth. Last I checked The Dark Knight was currently at #1 on the IMDB top 250 with an average score of 9.5 after 46,000 votes. I don’t think word of mouth gets much better than that.
I saw it today (Sunday) at the 11am show and the theater was half to 3/4 full, about twice what I saw in the same timeslot or Ironman. I agree that the movie was grim and a bit scarey for smaller kids. Nothing over-the-top compared to cable however. There was a bit of graphic violence in the movie, but almost all of the violence was suggested and not shown. I’m trying to remember an instance of blood flying and can’t, though I may be wrong. Vehicles got beaten like a red-headed stepchild, but we don’t count those.
I’m not a comic fan, but I did read Dark Knight when it came out and wanted to see the movie. I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. It was too long, but in spite of that, I found myself really engaged by the plot (the plot!) at a number of points in the movie. And Lord yes, they did surprise me a few times. I’d never heard of Heath Ledger before new of his death broke, but I only watch a few movies a year and rarely watch TV with the exception of the home improvement channels and the occasional classic sitcom.
Ledger’s performance was excellent. It blew away Jack Nicholson’s portrayal of the role and I remember thinking that was pretty good when I saw the Tim Burton film.
Christian Bale was dry and didn’t inspire me, though I thought the same of the first movie. Happily, the other characters and the story carried him well enough. I found the ferry bit engaging and satisfying, even if it was somewhat predictable in some aspects.
All in all, it was a good movie and I’d recommend it if asked. Movies like that are too thrilling to wait for the video release.
The Dark Knight was wayyyy too long. Plot, plot, plot. After a while, (an hour and fifty minutes, to be exact), I kind of stopped caring. When will the guys with Director’s Cut figure out that longer isn’t better? I had the same problem with the two hour+ Pirates of the Caribbean. Not to mention King Kong, and every other bloated Christmas release of the past several years. Please!
(Half the reason Juno was “great” is that it was 98 minutes!)
That said, Heath Ledger was amazing.
“Who gives a shit if the movie is “too dark” for ten year olds?”
People who are interested in talking about box office results. Movies that are kid friendly do get a big boost and often repeat viewing – this movie is obviously absolutely huge but its potential is limited by not being kid friendly. I’m sure many parents brought kids this weekend not knowing how dark and scary it is – word of mouth should be excellent overall but word will get out that it’s not a movie for little kids.
Then again, there will always be some idiot parents who will take their little kid (see examples on this and other threads) and have them traumatized by the movie. Not my business? It is when the little runt is sitting behind me and crying the whole time.
I think that Warner’s numbers are dead on. Myself and a friend went to see TDK for a second time this evening and it was sold out at both the theaters we stopped at. Sold out showings on a Sunday evening show that the movie has legs, people are still interested in seeing it multiple times, and the good word of mouth will propel it.
It’ll probably win BO next weekend. I’m a scifi geek and X Files doesn’t appeal to me anymore. I faithfully watched the show through the end and I’m content to wait for the DVD. I think people would be more interested in seeing a second movie if it had been made 3/4 years ago. It’s not nearly as familiar as it was and Lost and Battlestar Galatica have taken the titles of best scifi shows on TV.
Hmmm! With all the midnight showings, some theaters going 24 hours, the record number of prints, all the hype, the 25-to-50-cent higher ticket prices, and The Dark Knight barely beats Spider-Man 3?
I know this is still a huge gross, but it seems disappointing. Maybe all the press this weekend worked against it a little bit. I certainly stayed away, opting for Mamma Mia! instead. It was a much quieter, older, civilized audience there.
For those who are stating ‘ticket prices are higher’, let me point out that in Canada, ticket prices actually went DOWN 2-3$ a ticket compared to last year, and that the numbers stated are for North America (so it includes us Canucks).
First to Adam, I just want to say to you that you are on. X-Files will break at least $70 million next weekend. That movie comes just over six years after the last episode aired on FOX and that was a major hit for the network. Kelly admit it, you will likely go to the movie in order to check it out either by your own free will or someone decides for you.
For the most part, Heath’s death was by sleeping drugs that he used to try to get back into a normal sleeping pattern. Just by looking at the title of Dark Knight, you can tell there is going to be a lot of night scenes and all night shootings. It is sometimes hard to get back into a normal sleeping pattern. Trust me, I worked night shifts and it is sometimes super hard to stay awake in the daytime when you want to do so.
Also, I want to state this to Linda. Swing Vote will likely be big because the media will be going ga-ga all over it just like whenever SNL airs a political sketch and there were many examples of SNL in the news post strike from Mike Huckabee overstaying his welcome on Weekend Update to Hillary Clinton (the real one) reviewing the debate sketch that opened the Ellen Page/Wilco show. Yes that movie opens a week before the Olympics, but it will have legs partually due to the fact that the Democratic National Convention begins the day after the games end and August is usually convention month in the United States. I also know that the Mummy sequel also opens that very same day, but Swing Vote is smart counter programming.
Finally this note to t. Have you checked the time of most hit movies? Titanic’s running time is over 3 HOURS!!!!!!! That movie made over $2 billion when adjusted for inflation.
I feel kinda bad for Hellboy … its a very good movie (but yeah, I have seen it last week)
Jessy, you might want to rethink your X-Files estimate in the light of these tracking numbers 4 days ago on Jeff’s Hollywood Elsewhere column:
“The Dark Knight is tracking at 89, 71 and 51 — God, that’s the biggest first-choice number I’ve ever seen! Mamma Mia! is running at 88, 28 and 14. Space Chimps is pretty much a disaster — 62, 18 and 1. Stepbrothers (7.25) is running at 83, 35 and 5. The X-Files: I Want to Believe is at 75, 23 and 4. The new Mummy movie is 90. 36 and 6. Kevin Costner’s Swing Vote is at 47, 16 and 1– obviously in trouble. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants chick flick is running at 67, 18 and 4. Fly Me to the Moon is at 19 13 and 0. Perfect Game is at 20 13 and 0. Pineapple Express (opening August 8th) is running at 35, 32 and 2.”
I don’t have anything against the show, but 75, 23 and 4 sounds far from a $70m weekend to me. 4% first choice movie? 23% definitely interested? If it gets past $50m it will be surprising. Yes, I know you are a fan, but it’s not as relevant to today’s audience as you might think, judging by those numbers.
“With all the midnight showings, some theaters going 24 hours, the record number of prints, all the hype, the 25-to-50-cent higher ticket prices, and The Dark Knight barely beats Spider-Man 3?”
First, it wasn’t a record number of prints – while TDK set a record for theatres, it was still on fewer screens than Spidey 3. And Spidey had midnight showings and theatres going 24 hours as well. I’ll bet even after you adjust for inflation, TDK still ends up ahead of Spidey.
When a movie sets an all time record and you’re still disappointed, you’ve officially completely lost touch with reality.
“It’s depressing what two hours and thirty minutes of explosions will net you these days.”
Oh Sean…you didn’t even see it, did you? Fess up.
“DC usually beats Marvel in things like comic-book story quality, innovation, and overal entertainment value.”
Are you kidding? Other than these last two batman movies, what was the last really good movie from a DC property? Burton’s batman (or Returns), over 15 years ago? And it’s not like they haven’t had stinkers, remember the batman sequels, catwoman, and even the disappointing Superman Returns?
In that time, Marvel has made Spidey and Xmen (two each of which were good) and Iron Man. Marvel has had a number of solid franchises in terms of both quality and making big bucks, in the last 20 years or so, DC has had only Batman.
@ Jessy S
Fantasymoguls has X files:I want to believe tracking at a $14-$19 million opening weekend.
No one actually cares about X Files anymore and the reviews that are coming in are negative, i see Step Brothers (which is tracking at $17-$22 million) beating it out for 2nd place, TDK will stay top obviously and could take anywhere between $50 and $75 million. I wouldnt actually be suprised if Mamma Mia’s second weekend beat out X files for 3rd place.
At this time, tracking numbers don’t mean a thing for movies that premiere later in the week when you post numbers on Monday. That tracking number for X-Files is likely to grow as the week continues. The truth is that people make their plans as the week progresses and nobody is likely thinking about the weekend outside of a vacation trip they might have planned for the next few weeks.
When most people take in a movie, it is likely to be spur of the moment though some people have their movie’s opening date circled on the calendar and that is the case for X-Files fans, was the case for Simpsons fans, and will be the case for Michael Ausiello when the Smurfs movie comes out. If you read anything by him, you know he is a big Smurfs fan.
Getting back to my original point, when most people take in a movie, it is likely because they decided to do so at the spur of the moment though some do so because the planned it into their week. Summer is short by this time of the year and most people are weather watching which will expose them to movie ads including X-Files.
I agree, the X-Files isn’t nearly as interesting now so many years later. I think Hollywood thinks people are suckers for sequels. But as far as I’m concerned the only movie sequel I’m interested in is The Dark Knight. Absolute best movie of 2008! And Ledger and Bale, totally killer!
Poll: Now that the Dark Knight has opened, what film are you looking forward to.
Mummy 3: 26%
Stepbrothers: 20%
Pineapple Express: 17%
X-Files: 16%
Tropic Thunder: 12%
Others: 9%
Maybe so, but according to this poll (same source as Nikki’s), 16% of the people listed are interested in the movie. It may be fourth on this list, but only it and Stepbrothers are opening the same weekend.
I’m not sure how knocking the sacrosanct “DK” automatically means that I’m a “Spider-Man” fan. Yeah, I liked the Raimi webslinger flicks as much as everyone else (#2 more than #1, and #3 not much at all), but I also loved the Burton Batman movies, both of which are eminently superior to Nolan’s overhyped, overpraised, overlong Bat-ies.
As far as I’m concerned, Nolan’s only truly successful film to date was his “Insomnia” remake (emphasis on the word “remake”). “Memento” was overrated; “The Prestige” was a flat-out dud (and wildly, willfully incoherent); and “Batman Begins” suffered from the same flaws as “TDK.” Both are a good half hour too long, have more plot (and extraneous characters) than Nolan knows what to do with and they suffer from wobbly pacing/editing and a certain monotony of tone (grim, humorless, suffocating) that quickly becomes wearisome.
And Ledger’s self-indulgent, “look-at-me-act!” performance has been as overrated as Aaron Eckhart’s subtler, more interesting turn has been underrated.
To all those people making comparisons between Ledger and Brando and Dean; puh-leese! Except for “Brokeback Mountain,” Ledger’s resume was studded with mediocre performances in bad (or worse) films like “The Order,” “First Knight” and “The Patriot.” He wasn’t “all that,” folks. And the ridiculous amount of genuflecting crix, flacks and (apparently) audiences are doing over this film defies comprehension and common sense.
Even the box-office “records” are suspect since every “record” in this day and age should automatically come with an asterisk attached: higher ticket prices plus inflated IMAX prices, more screens than any other movie, extra “midnight” (includng 3 and 5 A.M.) previews, etc. translate to “record” grosses.
The whole thing gives me a bad case of gas.
And as much as I disliked it, I’m actually glad that “Mamma Mia!” did as well as it did. Speaking of jukebox musicals, I’d love to see “Jersey Boys” turned into a movie…albeit one directed by an actual film, not stage director.
You know, for all you guys complaining about it being “not-suited for 10 yr olds”.. Why not look at the rating for once? PG-13. THIRTEEN. Not TEN. If it was meant for ten and under, it would have followed through with the appropriate rating. Kids crying? Don’t blame the movie for the parents’ ignorance.
And for people complaining about the fraction it beat SM3 by.. you seriously think theaters can hold that many people? Theaters were packed at every showing of the day. Hell, when I went on the Friday it came out, it was crazy. You were lucky to sit two people together in the bottom section of a LARGE theater. And don’t forget those who stay back to watch a movie, or movie-hop. I can assure you that there were a lot more of these than with Spiderman 3. And if Linda has the balls to use inflation as an excuse, if it even affected everywhere, then she is clearly missing all the movies that came before SM3. I just hope those of you who disagree with me can just let the movie in peace. If it breaks records, more power to it. The film was a work of art, and those who deny it didn’t like it, or what it stood for, before they even saw it.
By the way, think of all the teenagers, middle-aged people, and even old people who read comics. They aren’t just for kids. Most kids only know Batman from the cartoons nowadays, anyways. Expand you thinking already.
Just chiming in to say Jesse S got owned badly :\
Jessy:
You can’t be serious….Swing Vote will FAIL miserably….when was the last time a fictional political movie did well at the box office? I’ll tell you when: NEVER. Look here for the numbers I’m looking at:
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=political-election.htm
Political movies always tank because they’re usually terrible. The good ones get lost in the crowd because no one wants to throw money at something they’re not sure of.
That brings me to my next point: X-Files was never going to make $70 million. It’s been 10 years since the last movie and 6 years since the last episode. No one knows what the show was anymore except the fanboys and there are maybe 10,000 of you guys left. No one is going to throw money at something they’re not sure about…that’s why X-Files tanked…bad reviews, ancient show…did I miss anything?
I just loved the movie,TDK very much.I’m a big fan of both Spiderman and Batman.But I loved TDK for the excellent performance by ledger,excellent musical score and for a very realistic storyline…….no fantasy…no super powers………truly ledger made the movie a big hit……