The Dark Knight – $314.2 Million In 10 Days!!
Sunday, July 27th, 2008
Warner Bros. Pictures’ The Dark Knight earned an estimated $75.6 million from 4,366 theaters in its second weekend, surpassing Shrek 2’s $72.2 million for biggest second weekend ever.
Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins follow-up has reached $314.2 million in just 10 days, another record. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest held the previous record in the amount of days it took to cross the $300 million mark – 16 days. On Monday, The Dark Knight will surpass Iron Man and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull to become the biggest movie of 2008 domestically.
The film is already up to #23 on the all-time domestic blockbuster list and has a good shot at surpassing Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope’s $460.998 million (not counting inflation) to become the second-biggest domestic earner of all-time, trailing only Titanic’s $600.788 million.
The Dark Knight, budgeted at $185 million, stars Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman.
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Jeez
I just watched the Bob Kane special on the Gotham Knight DVD set, and they talked about ‘89 Batman opening to 46$M opening weekend.
I’m seeing it again soon. :)
Could this be the movie to topple Titanic..?
Honestly? I kind of like Titanic still being #1. Such a bizarre ocurrance and it was, like, the epitome of a certain era. I mean, that movie was #1 for months. MONTHS. What the hell kinda acid was in the water back in those days. It’s sorta nostalgic and intriguing to have it still be the top.
I’m in a REAL weird nostalgic mood right now, lol. I’m gonna go see X-Files tomorrow and I’m honestly debating wearing my slip dress, Doc Martins, and one of those pacifier necklaces to it as a perfect piece of 90’s fun.
It is already long overdue to get passed. If Dark Knight doesn’t do it, it will be a long while before it happens. That is enough of a reason for me to cheer Dark Knight on. However, I’m pretty sure it will run out of steam before then. We’ll see though.
It’d be cool if Dark Knight could surpass Titanic, but I think it will have a hard time getting there. Movies just don’t stay in theaters as long as they used to.
As long as it passes Titanic as the #1 domestic grosser I’ll be happy. It really doesn’t have a chance in passing it Internationally. Domestically, Titanic earned $600.8M but foreign earned 1,242M for a total of 1,842.9M. As much as I’d love for it to happen, I just don’t see it. I think Titanic is one monster that is never going to be taken down, no matter how ridiculous and undeserving of that top spot it is.
I DO, however, think that The Dark Knight becoming the top domestics grosser is just a matter of time.
It won’t topple Titanic, that movie was in theatres for months, and each week it made more $1mil, Dark Knight will not stay in cinemas as long as that, it’s a better movie but it just won’t beat it. I feel bad for the X files movie, it wasn’t to bad, it should be making more. By the way, Sunshineyness, I wore the exact smae thing to see the X files movie
@Jack: Maybe, maybe not. But it’s halfway to the domestic crown, and it’s been 2 weeks. So it’s definitely a possibility, even if it doesn’t stay in theaters that long. But, one thing to note is that the remainder of 2008, and into 2009 is pretty slow. Particularly in the genre it will be competing with. So, if it keeps selling tickets, movie theaters are going to be hard pressed to replace it. People act like movies just don’t stick around anymore. Like it’s a magic cut off date where everyone says, “Welp, 4 months have passed, let’s remove this movie that is still selling tickets!” It’s nothing like that. A movie sticks around in a theater until a movie comes along that can sell more tickets than it can. Then usually the movie is passed to a second run or quasi-first run theater where it continues to play until they can’t milk any more out of it.
So why do movies leave theaters faster these days? More movies are released to chase the old movies out of theaters, and less people coming to see old movies has something to do with it. All I’m saying, is that if Dark Knight continues to do business, it has the potential for every bit of the staying power as Titanic. It’s word of mouth, and Oscar buzz that keeps people coming to the theaters, and Dark Knight should be able to pull both of those off. Now, if it actually wins and Oscar (Which I still find doubtful, because I am highly skeptical of any major awards show’s ability to see talent in a movie that is a blockbuster) then I think it’s chances increase even more.
One thing is that the Foreign box office just started rolling. It released to huge numbers in the UK, but it’s still being held out of several big European and Asian markets until August. So it’s in it for the long haul in other places besides the US. So we’ll see what happens.
The one thing people forget about Titanic is this: never underestimate the ability for a 13 year old girl to watch the same thing over and over and over… and pay for it. 13 year old boys (to the best of my knowledge) do not do this, and certainly not in the droves that the Titanic girls did. That was the real difference that Dark Knight and Titanic have.
People went to see Titanic in the theater repeatedly.
And, yes, Dark Knight will have a repeat audience (especially because of the IMAX release) but it won’t be the same. And, yes, it’s because of the times. In 1997 things did not come to DVD within the same year as the movie was released. VHS’s took time to produce. They would take sometimes more than a year to come out, so people saw the need to go to repeat viewings. People know this DVD will probably be out in time for Christmas, so they will be more hesitant to see it again.
I never actually saw Titanic… I don’t regret it
I will not comment Jack… other than to see that, sadly, I was 14 years old when this movie came out. You can do the math…
Titanic was a self-contained entity, where the audience could be totally immersed and would buy the lot again and again. Dark Knight is a great film, but it doesn’t have as much Universal appeal. Box numbers are a lousy comparison because the newer movie will always hold an advantage due to inflation.
Incidentally, I can recall that the first Major summer film to be released (on vhs) for that year’s Christmas season was a certain summer film from 1989. But Titanic was a Christmas theatrical release, so it had months to stick around and satisfy its audience, for it wouldn’t be on a home version until the next fall. (Which was also huge. I got my copy by switching telephone companies. How did you get yours?) : )
@Driv-el: It’s not as simple as examining inflation, so I often get tired of that excuse. Certainly, Titanic has inflation as a reason to say, “This will always be the best selling movie.” But considering that the economy is crap, ticket prices higher than they’ve ever been, DVDs come out within a year and are of similar quality on big screen TVs to a cinema experience, etc. You just can’t say that the movies today have an advantage because of inflation.
well girls are crazy so theres a reason titanic is at the top.
but geeky fanboys… come on guys! see it 10 more times and sink the titanic like the… well titanic.
speaking of dark knights box officeness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDxgNjMTPIs
Drive-El: My mom got a free copy when she bought 50 dollars or so worth of grocery’s (I can’t remember exactly how much) at the Grand Union. I remember it was on two VHS’s and I maybe only watched it a few times, I was so burned out by it. Though, to this day I remember that the movie that knocked it out of first place in the theatrical run was Lost in Space.
Randy: They say that if you take inflation and ticket prices into effect, that you have an argument to say that Gone With the Wind was the most successful movie of all time. And that movie got released during the Depression. So, I’m not convinced you can blame a bad economy. The movie industry is kind of like the wine industry: when times are good people want wine/movies… and when times are bad they need movies/wine.
High ticket prices are like an arms race. When one chain ups their prices, all the others do. When the studios demand a higher and higher cut the theaters have to keep upping and upping their prices.
Although I always say- as long as there are unimaginative daters, the movie theater will always be in business. Worst case scenario: we see more and more second run theaters and less first runs. I dunno… I wish instead of some theaters struggling to keep up with the big first run places they just convert over to second runs. It’s always a shame to see a beautiful one screener die because they can’t keep up with the stupid multi-plexes.
Sunshineyness: I’m not saying that you can’t have a number 1 movie with a bad economy. I’m saying that Inflation alone isn’t a good judge of what movie is “truely” #1. To me, if Dark Knight topped Titanic, that would be all the more impressive of a feat because of the circumstances that surround us during this time. People usually don’t watch movies multiple times anymore. Back then, they did.
Anyway, it’s a moot point. The record is for all time domestic gross. Not All time adjusted gross. I’m pretty sure once you figure in inflation, as you said, even Titanic didn’t top it. So I doubt that will never be topped. Entertainment rarely raises at the same rate as inflation. If it did, even less people would go to see movies.
It’s like video games. Can you you factor in inflation into their sales? Even though the price of games and consoles have actually went back down from where they had been? Personally, I think if you are going to look to another system of measurement, it needs to be tickets/units sold. that’s the most accurate measurement of how many people enjoyed it.
thats what i was thinking, tickets sold.
because for $, you go see it at the NICE theater in a big city, its gonna be $10+ dollars a person.
you go see a nice theater in a small town, $9 dollars a person.
then you go see crappy/second run theater (not saying second run is crappy…) then its down to $4+ per person.
so really tickets would be the best way.
and then if you wanted to track dvd sales….
well lets just stick with most successful in theaters…
and regardless of money, people have opinions about which is better (dark knight) between titanic and dk so imdb is the best way to go!
lol.
but dk IS in first, knocked off godfather and kept going :p
ooh just checked the board, shawshank also toppled godfather.
whoo!
morgan freeman is in first and second place!
oops guess i didnt need to say $10+ dollars… oh well
sorry for posting 3 times in a row….
Ok, as far as box, I’ve seen it twice and paid a total of five dollars. Used a free ticket from the dentist to see it today; the first time was $5 at a drive-in (with a corrugated metal screen! Talk about crappy presentation!)
Ordinarily, I don’t prefer the Drive-in experience for watching an event film, but it was a car club event, and it was opening weekend. Mark me down as one in favor of counting tickets torn.
TDK may have surpassed the rest of filmdom on imdb for today. But again, as a fresh release it holds an advantage. I’m sure if imdb was around in 1977 that Star Wars would’ve claimed the most popular title. I do believe it won (or tied for) a people’s choice award.