DHD CONTEST: Dark Knight Predictions!
UPDATE: Studio sources tell me that record-breaking advance ticket sales for Warner Bros' Batman: The Dark Knight "continue to grow at a pace unlike any other film in history". Even the number of locations in North America where the comic book caper will be playing -- 4,366 -- is an Industry record. There are also approximately 3,000 theaters that will start screening the Christian Bale/Heath Ledger actioner at 12:01AM Friday. 
Meanwhile, every IMAX show in New York City this weekend is sold out. By all accounts this should be Hollywood's best-ever 3-day overall North American weekend at the box office: the number to beat is last year's $151+ million. So Dark Knight's expected $130+ million opening, combined with Universal's anticipated $25+ million Mamma Mia! debut, should expand the marketplace by a huge number to include those two films and all the very popular holdovers like Sony's Hancock, Universal's Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Disney/Pixar's Wall-E, Warner Bros' Journey To The Center Of The Earth, and Universal's Wanted. As a Warner Bros exec emailed me, "Should be a fun ride this weekend..."
'Dark Knight' Speeding Towards Friday: Selling, Selling, Selling ...Nearly Sold Out
Actually the 3-day record is $151,116,516, according to Box Office Mojo. And I’d be very surprised to see TDK not surpass that.
Comment by Sandy — July 16, 2008 @ 4:31 pm
Personaly for me I haven’t experieced pre-release water cooler talk about any summer film since Jurassic Park hit theaters in 1993. In an era of one weekend and what’s next,this one just feels different! It really does!
Comment by entertainmenttodayandbeyond — July 16, 2008 @ 4:46 pm
My new prediction is that my earlier prediction of a modest $110 million maximum will probably be incorrect.
I guess this goes to show how positive word of mouth and DVD sales (i.e. BATMAN BEGINS), coupled with online ticket buying’s growth, plus hopefully deserved hype, can bring numbers up like mad.
Happy times, Bat-fans!
Comment by Guy Fawkes — July 16, 2008 @ 4:46 pm
According to The Business Sheet, every IMAX show in New York City this weekend is sold out.
http://www.businesssheet.com/2008/7/want-to-see-the-dark-knight-in-imax-this-weekend-too-bad
Comment by Hilary Lewis — July 16, 2008 @ 5:01 pm
Nikki
I think what’s more important is to break the biggest weekend gross ever. We have a number of movies seems to be crowd fav this weekend, Hancock, Wall-E, Hellboy, Journey..earth.
The BIGGEST B.O Weekend set in 2006 (July 7-9) when PoTC2 was at the top. The top 12 movies had a combined gross of $209,881,552 when PoTC2 broke then biggest 3 day bow ever, set by Spidey 1.
That was the 1st time when we broke the 200M barrier. If this weekend is as big as we all hope for, then we are in for a treat
Comment by Armand — July 16, 2008 @ 5:04 pm
I was lucky enough to see TDK in IMAX a few days early. Without ruining anything or giving away any plot details all I will say is…
I sat in the theater afterward unable to move until the usher asked me to leave. I drove home in silence unable to speak because the movie will literally take your breath away. Other superhero/comic films can’t even be compared to it because it’s in an entire other stratosphere. You could take Batman and The Joker out of the film and just replace them with a normal good guy/bad guy and it would still be one of the best crime/detective films of all time — The story is just THAT amazing…It’s simply one of the greatest cinematic experiences in recent history…See THE DARK KNIGHT in IMAX at least once — Trust me, you’ll want to see it again because you’ll leave the theater questioning if what you just saw really happened…
Comment by Bruce Wayne — July 16, 2008 @ 5:19 pm
Is it Friday yet?
I haven’t been this hyped to see a movie since “Revenge of the Sith.”
Comment by JoeCool — July 16, 2008 @ 5:49 pm
I know that in Lansing, MI that the big promo is 24 hours of Darkness and the Dark Knight will be going for twenty four straight hours starting at 12:01
Comment by Brandon — July 16, 2008 @ 8:52 pm
Brandon, they’re doing the same thing at the Arclight Hollywood, home of the famous “Cinerama Dome.”
I think I’m going to see this in IMAX too, for a second show after my initial viewing there.
Comment by Guy Fawkes — July 16, 2008 @ 10:23 pm
I said it in a previous post…everything seems to be falling into place for this to be a monster…and it doesn’t seem to be manufactured, its simply taking on a life of its own, and the people in charge are just letting it roll.
Lets remember as well, at the very worst, this is going to be a ‘good’ movie…and its probably going to be a very good-to-great one. Spiderman 3 this is not…
$160 M?
Comment by neil — July 16, 2008 @ 10:46 pm
we all jacking off to Batman
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee !!!!
Comment by Chark Bloven — July 17, 2008 @ 4:24 am
Is it possible that, with almost unprecedented pre-release coverage of sellout screenings, some people might decide to stay home and see it a few days down the road?
Comment by TorontoTodd — July 17, 2008 @ 7:04 am
It’s all good for the Industry; a rising tide lifts all boats, etc. But it would be so much more helpful, not to mention accurate, if the b.o. actuaries would report the number of admissions rather than gross ticket sales.
Comment by Santayana — July 17, 2008 @ 7:11 am
If some one would have told me a year ago that a Batman film could open to 151 mil in business on its opening weekend I wouldn’t have believed it. Batman especially Chris Nolans world of The Dark Knight is a much darker territory than say Sam Raimi Spiderman films. Will 10 yrs old kids being seeing The Dark Knight this weekend? Well, with advanced ticket sales this strong, Id say the answer to that is a resounding YES! Personally I think its been a while since there’s been an a big summer popcorn movie that you could call great(There have been many good one’s, but great, not so many) and many moviegoers are hoping that The Dark Knight will be equal to its hype and will live up to extremely high expectations! Personally I think It’s alot of fun to see people this excited about a movie!
Comment by entertainmenttodayandbeyond — July 17, 2008 @ 8:23 am
I expect two top summer grossers: The Dark Knight and next weekend’s release X files: I want to believe.
Comment by chuck — July 17, 2008 @ 12:36 pm
Can you believe Star Wars opened on only 43 screens and grossed $325 million domestically in 1977-8 dollars? That would be $1.15 billion in today’s dollars. The Dark Knight will be lucky if it does half that!
Comment by Dan Zee — July 17, 2008 @ 1:27 pm
Third row center for TDK @ the Arclight dome, Saturday night! I haven’t been this excited for a movie since the first Lord of the Rings filmn premiered.
Comment by Deadlineawesomemovie — July 18, 2008 @ 10:00 am