[And the first one who says “Only if he’s prepared” or “He just needs to find an iceberg” will be slapped with a wet trout :D]
The Dark Knight has blown past $315 million in box office earnings in ten days. Apparently, the previous fastest movie to $300 million was Pirates of the Caribbean 2. And it took 16 days.
So Batman has definitely found an audience, but does anyone think it can topple the mighty Titanic (which is sitting at $600,788,188)?
I think it’s got a shot, but I think it’ll fall just a little short in the $500,000,000 range. But that would still be good for second place.
It’s possible, though I don’t think so if adjusted for inflation.
It helps that not too much else is coming out this summer. I don’t think The Mummy 3 will take too much money away from The Dark Knight.
I tend to the The Dark Knight’s real victim was the X-Files movie. If X-files had come out just a little earlier or later, they might have been able to pull more than 10 million, which is shockingly low even for a poorly reviewed major movie.
I’d agree with you if it weren’t for the fact that The X-Files 2 earned everyone of those poor reviews and likely wouldn’t have made much more than $10 million whenever it was released.
I doubt that “The Dark Knight” will have the legs that “Titanic” did. It lacks the feminine appeal to keep the ladies coming back, over and over and over and over and over…
agreed with QtM - I think most people who saw it won’t keep coming back again and again. Granted there are many true fans who will, but not enough to get close to “Titanic”.
I will enjoy seeing Leger’s Joker again, but I can wait for the DVD.
I think it is a rare film indeed that folks will pay over and over to see in the theatres. (I saw the original POTC 6 times in the theatre, & loved it each time. Visited Middle Earth while it was on the big screen many times also. Those are the only ones I could/would stretch my budget for.)
Mrs. Urquhart and I saw it for the second time this last weekend on an IMAX screen here in Denver (we saw it opening weekend on a regular screen). About 90 percent of the seats at our Saturday 9 AM screening were filled; the rest of the showings on Saturday were sold out (as was a 1 AM Sunday morning).
The IMAX shows are $12 tickets.
I agree with previous posters; it doesn’t have the cross-gender (somehow that doesn’t sound right) thing going for it that *Titanic * did.
To me, looking at the box offices receipts instead of numbers of tickets sold is not a realistic interpretation of how well a movie did. When Titanic came out, ticket prices were probably 1/2 what they are now.
I suppose I could have been more diplomatic, but it’s a valid reason. I do think the movie’s over-rated, and I think a large part of the popular believes so as well, based on anecdotal evidence. And as such, they won’t be seeing it again, nor will they be recommending it to others, which will cut down on the amount of people seeing/re-seeing the movie in the coming weeks.
Edit: Also, are you implying I’ve threadshit elsewhere? Pray tell, when?
Titanic was a better – at least compentent – film.
I disagree, but whatever. Obviously a lot of people say that about Titanic too, so what does that matter? I’m not among them btw, I think Titanic is a great film, fully deserving of every one of its dollars and awards. A lot of complex factors went into Titanic’s record, and no movie, especially a genre movie, will come close for, I would guess, at least a couple of decades. It would take something with massive popularity among both sexes and all age groups, unprecedented repeat viewings and much higher ticket prices.
**The Dark Knight ** will start slowing down soon, then there will be a sharp drop-off. It won’t get anywhere near Titanic, though I’m sure it’ll make the Top 10.
True, a lot of people think that about every film. The difference though is that the numbers already suggest otherwise. While Dark Knight’s revenue dropped 50% in its second week, Titanic continued to gain momentum for weeks. Granted, Titan’s initial opening was drastically lower than Batman’s, but it goes to show how powerful word of mouth is, and I very much doubt Dark Knight will experience a similar phenomenon.
Well, if you adjust for inflation, Titanic’s not even in the Top 5.
DK made $238M the first full week, and the second weekend drop-off was 50% (which is pretty good). Though the drop-off rate is probably going to be higher each subsequent week, let’s assume that it sticks with 50%. That means at the end of 2 full weeks, it’ll be at $350M (passing Iron Man, which is still #1 for the time being for 2008).
Extrapolating the 50% further…
3 weeks: 416M (putting it at #7 on the All-Time list)
5 weeks: 461M (putting it past Star Wars for the #2 slot)
10 weeks: 475M (still over $100M short of the Big Boat)
and then the math simply plateaus from there. By that time, it’s late September, when school’s back in and the b.o. traditionally slumps even further.
And that’s only if it sticks with 50% drop-off. Even at 55% drop-off, the numbers change to:
3 weeks: 399M (right behind the first Spider-Man)
5 weeks: 439M (right behind Shrek 2 for 4th place)
10 weeks: 452M (#3 all-time ahead of E.T.)
And if every subsequent week is at 60% drop-off, it doesn’t even crack the Top 5 after 10 weeks.
Could that be because it went into limited release for the sake of Oscar eligibility before going into wide release?
In any case, I doubt it will have that many return viewers, because home DVDs are so cheap to buy. In Titanic’s day, VHS tapes of movies were expensive (that’s why Blockbuster could make a fortune renting the things out), and DVD hadn’t yet made a dent in the market, so people who wanted to see it again went back to the theaters a zillion times.
I don’t see how annecdotal evidence proves the decline of the film in the face of numbers. Wasn’t the cinescore an “A” rating? I know the Rotten Tomatoes critics scores were in the 90’s. Repeat viewing are reported as high. Second week box office is a record. The numbers seem to suggest a crowd pleaser. Not that this indicates quality, but it does indicate popular appeal.
I don’t think DK breaks the domestic record, but I would be curious to see how the global record will go. I think DK will play better globally than Titanic.
I think if DK does break the record, it will be because the film gets a re-release at Oscar time and fans want to see it again on the big screen despite already owning the DVD.
If we adjust for inflation, no one will ever pass GWTW.
