First things first, ladies and germs. This article is not going to make any reference to the assault charges against Christian Bale.
For any thoughts and/or comments on said matter, our buddy Bruce Simmons has written up a damn-fine article detailing the Bale arrest situation as it stands right now where you can give your $.02 on that matter.
So anyway, a solid month ago, yours truly wrote up an article questioning the insane pre-release hysteria over the release of the Batman Begins sequel The Dark Knight, asking whether or not the box-office predictions many were making were in fact realistic expectations.
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Well… there’s no two-ways around it - when you’re wrong, you’re wrong, folks. And I was dead wrong! To be fair, I always thought The Dark Knight was going to pull in solid numbers. And I can point to you God knows how many examples where fans over-blew their box-office predictions based solely on their own anticipation and none-stop Internet hype.
Of course, some over-zealous readers decided to put words in my mouth and claim my article was “an attempt to capitalize on the hype for the film and attack it.” Uhh… that would be: no. Anyone using 1/3 of their brain would realize I wasn’t doing that in the slightest. The article was fair and objective.
In fact, I brought these concerns to Jett (aka the big-cheese over at Batman On Film News) who actually agreed with me(!) and stated he’d told the regulars on his own forum to keep their own expectations within reason based on the dark nature of the film.
Of course, we (especially me) have egg on our face. The Dark Knight proved to be the rare exception to the rule of Internet and fanboy hype. To be honest, it’s good to wrong sometimes - especially with a film as solid as this.
So as it stands, The Dark Knight has in fact broken quiet a few records… with more to come. The Christopher Nolan-helmed sequel has claimed the biggest 3-day opening weekend ($158.4 million), midnight opening ($18.4 million), Friday, opening day and single day openings ($67.2 million), July and PG-13 rated openings ($158.4 million) and Sunday opening ($43.6 million).
Not to mention, just today it also broke the record for fastest to $200 million (5 days) and biggest 5 day opening ($203.8 million). And by the end of this weekend (if not sooner), it will break the fastest to $300 million record - which is currently held by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest in 16 days.
In fact, a number of box-office experts are now saying $400 million is a lock and The Dark Knight is likely to topple Shrek 2 as the highest grossing film of the decade ($441 million). One wonders just how big this film will be once it hits the foreign box-office…
The Dark Knight is now in theatres - go add to the pot.
18 Comments
Hey Jamie, I wouldn’t worry about it. I never considered you to be wrong so to say. Its a prediction after all and it was a speculative article.
I had more prob with the film than your article.
How high is that Titanic record again ????? This will come close. I predict that.
The dvds alone are gonna blow the dvd market wide open. It will set records there too.
I was never actually afraid that the Bat was going to fail. The foreign markets and the DVD/HD-release will fix almost any summer movie disaster.
These days I’m far more p***ed off about the fact, that because of some religious zealots and morons we’re not going to see the remaining two instalments of HIS DARK MATERIALS (aka the sequels to THE GOLDEN COMPASS):
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/film-tv/news/christian-protests-may-leave-philip-pullmans-trilogy-as-one-of-a-kind-13912686.html
Thank you very much, dear “good” Christians! You obviously embody all the prejudices that Philip Pullman was writing about in the first place.
ZAR.
TDK wont come close to Titanics record
$400 maybe but thats a long way from Titanics record .
Well that are good numbers :).
Anyways, over here (Belgium) there was a lot of marketing (and still is) going, but I went to see an early (5 AM) show on the first day (yesterday), the people who came reserved their ticket, but the room was only 1/3th full.
Americans are more movie-going than Europeans, I guess, and more comic-book fans.
Still, with those numbers, we can prettu sure say that Nolan and Bale will be back! And I secretly hope they make 5 of them, and not 3, this is just a serie that’s worth it. This is no Matrix or Pirates, the sequel was actually better than the first, with top actors and all.
greets
Are they even making sequels to the golden compass?
I didn’t enjoy that movie at all.
@ZAR Easy boy - I was on the fence regarding whether or not to delete your post.
Vic
I saw about 5 min, of The Golden Compass and it was horrible.
Hey Zar
I can’t see foreign grosses or DVD sales helping Spped Racer recoup it losses..that was a disaster..THe Wakowski’s stated that the movie was ahead of it’s time and that fans didn’t get it..Polite way of saying they think the fans are stupid for not getting it..Hello Andy and Larry…It was crap…B-level acting, story, plot and directing made with an A movie budget…It was a worse B movie than 10,000 BC for cryin’ out loud…
I think the public is stupid overall, and fat too.
What you talkin bout Greenknight333. Speed Racer was aweosme.!!!
@Vic: I’m sorry, my choice of words may have been too strong!
But I’m not going to excuse for what I said (if that’s your point).
People who won’t distinguish between criticism on the church and criticism on the religion ARE religious zealots! Besides, I saw a lot of the protests AND the protesters and they obviously had NEITHER seen the movie NOR read the novels! When a person is trying to harm someone or something out of deliberate ignorance, this is fanaticism and definitely moronic as well!
We critisize his kind of mobilised mob (someone obviously had an interest in getting these people together in the first place) elsewhere, but when it happens right in our own country, we just accept it as “ok”?
ZAR.
Zar
It sounds like you are blaming people for exercising freedom of choice…If the Golden Compass had made 200 million..heck even 150 million domestic it would be getting sequels up to yin yang… Profit and greed are this world’s religion…Most people take criticism of their religion or church as an attack…Refine your critique to maybe include complaints of improper interpretations of church doctrines by church leaders and maybe you will have a better argument. Religion itself is not the problem here as most religions advocate peace, love, compassion and kindness..It’s our interpretation and manipulation of doctrines that mutate beautiful teachings of CHrist, Buddha, Krishna, Mohammed, Lao Tze , Confuscious (whomever you believe in).. If every person in the world made a conscious effort to promote love, compassion and kindness then good would come naturally and the world would be a better more harmonious place…Oh and how did you know that protestors didn’t see the movie or read the books on which they are based. I read Davinci code and I am a Strong Catholic… I was offended til I realized that this work of fiction was just Dan Brown’s ploy to get rich from attacking people’s beliefs to the core..Attack a Savior with a fantastic story of conjecture by people who have been proven to be frauds…That’s called being an opportunist…but it worked for Dan Brown..He was able to do it because we live in a democracy just as people are allowed to protest something that attacks their beliefs… Again what you call moronic is democracy in action..
Cheers
400 million?? it could make that by next weekend go to boxofficemojo and check the daily box office for Spiderman etc they will run this thing until its making a $100 grand a day easily $500 million in the us it could do that in a month actually more and more people are going to see it 3 and 4 times I know at least 10 people who want to see it in IMAX which is even more $$$
As the king of an amoral universe, as a purveyor of unrestricted evil for fun, Ledger’s dastardly villain, attired as sort of a rotting Clarabell, has chosen his own damnation. He’s jumped into an abyss he has dug himself, and he wants to pull us along.
I m watched The Dark Knight Movies Here
http://www.80millionmoviesfree.com
So boxofficemojo is projecting that TDK will beat out The Mummy 3 to stay on top for a third staight weekend and will land by the end of Sunday night at around $394 million domestic take alone in only 17 days. $500 million is within range and maybe close to if not more than $1 billion worldwide…wow
btw saw it on an Imax screen finally and…WOW…if you haven’t seen it on Imax you have to check it out, it’s worth the trip and the extra coin. I think if Nolan does a third film his next logical step would be to shoot the entire movie in Imax
IMAX is the way to see it
What's your opinion? Leave a comment!