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Why Sharp Friday Drop? THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Box Office


  • The Dark Knight Rises box office Bane mask
    The Dark Knight Rises weekend box office. (Photo: The masked mad terrorist / anarchist Bane, Tom Hardy.) Christopher Nolan’s "Batman 3" movie, The Dark Knight Rises, scored an estimated $160-162m at 4,404 North American theaters this July 20-22 weekend, including $30.6m from Thursday midnight screenings. That’s about $20m-$25m less than early Friday estimates indicated. It’s unclear whether or not the Colorado shooting that left 12 people dead and 60 injured affected The Dark Knight Rises‘ box-office take.
    Following the tragedy, TDKR distributor Warner Bros. announced it wouldn’t release any box-office information over the weekend. Every major Hollywood studio has since followed suit. Additionally, Rentrak, the organization that keeps track of box-office figures, declined to divulge worldwide box-office estimates on Sunday. The $160-162m figure was given out by "box-office insiders." Weekend box-office actuals will be released on Monday as usual. [See also: Christopher Nolan statement on behalf of The Dark Knight Rises' cast and crew and Christian Bale statement regarding the shooting.]
    The Dark Knight Rises weekend box office: 2D record broken only if inflation ignored

    If the weekend estimate is accurate, The Dark Knight Rises is third among the biggest opening weekends ever in the US/Canada, trailing only Joss Whedon / Chris Hemsworth / Chris Evans’ The Avengers‘ $207.43m and David Yates / Daniel Radcliffe / Ralph Fiennes’ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2‘s $169.18m. Curiously, three of the five highest-grossing opening weekends in North America are 2012 releases: besides The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises, there’s Gary Ross / Jennifer Lawrence / Josh Hutcherson’s The Hunger Games at no. 4. [See also: The Dark Knight Rises midnight box-office record and The Dark Knight Rises Friday box office.]
    Since both The Avengers and Deathly Hallows 2 are 3D releases, The Dark Knight Rises has been heralded as the 2D movie champ on the domestic, opening-weekend box-office chart. TDKR‘s predecessor was Christopher Nolan’s own "Batman 2" movie, The Dark Knight, which grossed $158.41m in July 2008.
    The Dark Knight Rises vs. The Dark Knight: ticket sales

    However, if higher ticket prices are factored in (and TDKR box-office estimates are correct), The Dark Knight easily remains on top: its $158.41m opening-weekend take would translate into approximately $174.7m today. In other words, if July 20-22, 2012, weekend estimates accurate The Dark Knight sold many more tickets than The Dark Knight Rises back in summer 2008 — even without taking into account TDKR‘s IMAX surcharges.
    Now, following the Colorado massacre some have gotten up on their personal soapboxes to claim that box-office figures aren’t important and why should anyone emphasize or even bother reporting them? After all, what truly matters is the quality of the movies.
    If you think that way, you don’t live on planet Earth. The Dark Knight Rises wasn’t made because Warner Bros. or Christopher Nolan or Jonathan Nolan or Christian Bale wanted to make the greatest movie epic of all time. The only reason The Dark Knight Rises ultimately got made was to make money. Lots of money. Else, no matter how brilliant Christopher Nolan’s vision might have been, he would never, ever have gotten (an estimated) $250m — not including another $100m+ in marketing / distribution expenses — to make his film.
    Commercial movies aren’t made to be great works of art. They’re made so they’ll appeal to the largest number of moviegoers (mostly teenagers and parents with little children) and thus bring in the most revenues. That’s fact. And that has always been so, even before giant multinational conglomerates took over Hollywood. Without the lure of huge box-office grosses, movies such as The Dark Knight Rises would never get made and, in fact, Hollywood itself would no longer exist as a filmmaking factory. Box-office revenues (and ensuing ancillary income) — not great movies — are the raison d’ĂȘtre of the film industry.
    Directed and co-written by Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight Rises stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman, Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle / Catwoman, Tom Hardy as the mad terrorist Bane, Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate, plus Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Morgan Freeman, and Matthew Modine.
    “THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Weekend Box Office” / Tom Hardy as Bane picture: Ron Phillips / Warner Bros.

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    Why Sharp Friday Drop? THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Box Office

  • Marion Cotillard The Dark Knight Rises Miranda Tate

    The Dark Knight Rises box office down sharply on Friday. (Photo:Marion CotillardMiranda Tate.) In late July 2008,Christopher Nolan’sThe Dark Knightwas down -65.5% on its second Friday out and -52.5% on its second weekend, collecting $75.16m from Fri-Sun. On its second Friday out, The Dark Knight Risesplummeted 76%, and should earn around $55-58m (about $8-12m less than late-night Friday estimates indicated) over the weekend.
    Taking the lowest figure, that would represent a -65.5% weekend-to-weekend tumble. Why the sharp drop? The Colorado shooting? The London Olympics? Both?
    First of all, remember that The Dark Knight Rises‘ $75.75m take on Friday, July 20, included a record-breaking (for a 2D movie) $30.6m from Thursday midnight screenings. Excluding the midnight shows, TDKR would be down a still steep but considerably less dramatic -60% on its second Friday out. [See also:The Dark Knight Rises midnight box-office record.]
    For comparison’s sake: The Dark Knight earned a much more modest $18.1m from midnight shows. Deducting that amount, Nolan’s "Batman 2" movie was down -47%. Now, bear in mind that The Dark Knight faced no competition from the Beijing Olympics on it second weekend out. The 2008 Olympics kicked off on August 8 — the film’s fourth weekend — and at a less convenient time zone for American and Canadian television watchers.
    The Dark Knight Rises $300m milestone on Tuesday

    At this stage, it looks like The Dark Knight Rises will pass the $300m milestone at the domestic box office only on Tuesday, Day 12 — one day later than early Friday estimates indicated. The Avengers, with the assistance of 3D surcharges, reached that milestone in nine days; The Dark Knight, at fewer (costlier) IMAX theaters and not taking inflation into account, reached that mark in ten days.
    Not taking inflation into account, the next three movies on the "fastest to $300m chart" are Michael Bay / Shia LaBeouf / Megan Fox’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in 14 days, James Cameron / Sam Worthington / Sigourney Weaver’sAvatar in 15 days, and David Yates / Daniel Radcliffe / Ralph Fiennes’ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 also in 15 days. [See also: The Dark Knight Rises Box Office: $200m After Six Days.]
    Last weekend, The Dark Knight Rises grossed $160.88m at 4,404 North American theaters, officially breaking the record for the biggest opening weekend for a 2D release. But when it comes to ticket sales, TDKR clearly trailedThe Dark Knight, which scored $158.41m in summer 2008 — or approximately $174.7m today. Now The Dark Knight Rises is trailing The Dark Knight both in ticket sales and unadjusted grosses. After eight days, The Dark Knight had raked in $261.84m vs. The Dark Knight Rises‘ estimated $243.01m.
    Undeniably, TDKR‘s opening-weekend box-office take fell below expectations because of the Colorado shooting. At a Friday midnight screening in the Denver suburb of Aurora, a mad gunman killed 12 people and injured nearly 60 others. [See also: Christopher Nolan statement on behalf of The Dark Knight Rises' cast and crew, and Christian Bale statement and Anne Hathaway statementregarding the shooting.]
    The Dark Knight Rises box office: Colorado shooting effect?

    This weekend, especially regarding the steep Friday tumble, I still believe it would be precipitated to claim that the Colorado massacre was the reason — or even the chief reason — for the box-office drop. There was/is strong competition from the Olympics and The Dark Knight Rises has failed to match the overwhelming acclaim of its predecessor. Nolan’s "Batman 3" movie currently has a 77% approval rating and 7.9/10 average among Rotten Tomatoes‘ top critics vs. a 91% approval rating and (a, admittedly, only slightly higher) 8.0/10 average for "Batman 2."
    I could be wrong, of course, as there are reports that approximately one in five potential moviegoers is reluctant to return to movie theaters this weekend. How trustworthy those surveys are, however, is highly debatable.
    Not including marketing / distribution expenses, The Dark Knight Risesreportedly cost $250m; The Dark Knight $185m.
    Directed and co-written by Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight Rises starsChristian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, and Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Morgan Freeman. Jonathan Nolan co-wrote the screenplay, inspired by Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities.
    "THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Box Office: Sharp Friday Drop?" / Marion Cotillard Miranda Tate picture: Ron Phillips / Warner Bros.
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    The Dark Knight Rises box office: Surpasses $1 billion worldwide



  • The Dark Knight Rises TDKR Anne Hathaway Christian BaleThe Dark Knight Rises box office: Surpasses $1 billion worldwide

    The Dark Knight Rises earned an estimated $5.88m this past weekend in North America (as per Box Office Mojo) and an estimated $46.4m at the international box office (as per The Hollywood Reporter). Note: As usual, the international "weekend" box-office figure includes weekday screenings in some countries. Anyhow, The Dark Knight Rises‘ current worldwide box-office cume stands at $1.005 billion. In other words, TDKR has passed the $1 billion milestone — and it has surpassed its predecessor at the worldwide box office. Well, if we choose to ignore inflation and currency exchange rates, that is. (More on that in the follow-up post, TDKR vs. TDK worldwide box office.) [Photo: Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle The Dark Knight Rises.]
    Helping The Dark Knight Rises pass the $1 billion mark were Italy, where TDKRdebuted with $8.8m, and China, where Christopher Nolan’s third and finalBatman movie opened with an estimated $28.5m. Note: In China, The Dark Knight Rises was the no. 2 movie, behind Marc Webb / Andrew Garfield / Emma Stone’s The Amazing Spider-Man, which collected $33.3m. (Give China another decade or so, and that country will become a bigger market than the United States for Hollywood movies — and quite likely for just about everything else as well.)
    The Dark Knight Rises is currently — and in all likelihood shall remain — the no. 2 2012 release, trailing only The Avengers‘ considerably heftier $1.5 billion. Here and there, Warner Bros.’ Batman movie has beaten the Disney / Marvel superhero ensemble flick: a week or so ago, The Dark Knight Rises‘ surpassedThe Avengers in the United Kingdom.

    The Dark Knight Rises cast

    The Dark Knight Rises stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne aka Batman, Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle aka Catwoman, Tom Hardy as BaneMarion Cotillardas Miranda Tate, Michael CaineJoseph Gordon-LevittMorgan FreemanGary Oldman, Matthew Modine, and Tom Conti.
    Christopher Nolan co-wrote the TDKR screenplay with his brother Jonathan Nolan, who has stated that the film’s basic premise was inspired by Charles Dickens’ novel A Tale of Two Cities.
    The Dark Knight Rises Box Office: $1 Billion Worldwide" Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle picture: Ron Philips / Warner Bros.
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