Even though I was shoving the movie down your throats for two whole years, I’ve been fairly reserved on my opinions for The Dark Knight, in fact I believe this is the first time since I’ve seen it that I’ve even mentioned it.
One of the reasons why, is that the movie really needs some time to settle. Hyperbole for the movie is at an all time high right now, it’s pretty incredible it is still after 10 days at the top of the IMDB Top 250 list and it doesn’t look like it will budge anytime soon.
The movie and everyone involved in the making of it certainly deserves an applause…
But it is of course – not the greatest film of all time. It may be the best Batman film of all time, the best film that Christopher Nolan, Christian Bale and Heath Ledger have even being involved with, it may be the greatest superhero film ever made, and it is certainly as good as recent epics like The Departed and even Michael Mann’s Heat but it is not The Godfather, Citizen Kane, Vertigo, The Seven Samurai etc.
And in any event, it needs some time to really settle before we can really decide where the movie should stand on our Top Lists. Which is why I’ve tried to be as quiet as possible on the film – which I’ve seen twice and plan on seeing at least once more in it’s long theatrical run.
I will say this. I thought it was fucking amazing and I had to see it twice before everything fell into place – there was literally so much to take in. Talk about raising the bar and it kinda has a feeling about it that the franchise has peaked at it’s second point. I’m sure Nolan has one good movie left in him, and the character several more but how on Earth do you top this?
But like I said I didn’t want to talk too much about Batman just yet, though I will mention it’s financial figures.
| 1 | The Dark Knight (2008) | $75.6M | $314M | |
| 2 | Step Brothers (2008) | $30M | $30M | |
| 3 | Mamma Mia! (2008) | $17.9M | $62.7M | |
| 4 | The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008) | $10.2M | $10.2M | |
| 5 | Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008) | $9.41M | $60.2M | |
| 6 | Hancock (2008) | $8.2M | $206M | |
| 7 | WALL·E (2008) | $6.35M | $195M | |
| 8 | Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) | $4.93M | $65.9M | |
| 9 | Space Chimps (2008) | $4.38M | $16M | |
| 10 | Wanted (2008) | $2.73M | $129M |
Earning a quite frankly amazing $75.6 million on it’s second weekend no doubt helped by fantastic repeat business, The Dark Knight has added another record to it’s ever growing cabinet. It is the highest grossing second weekend ever after last week’s highest grossing weekend in history.
The movie has made $314.2 million in just ten days, another record – beating Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest to the $300 million mark by 8 days. The movie has also now well surpassed the final total of Batman Begins‘ domestic $205 million.
It’s hard to put a limit on what the movie could achieve. Tomorrow it will become the highest grossing movie of the year and without trying to overstate it’s chances… with the insane amount of repeat business it does carry a shot at beating Star Wars IV: A New Hope’s $460 million from 1977 (of course not including inflation) which would make it the second highest grossing film of all time.
It’s very doubtful the movie will hit $600 million, the final domestic total of Titanic in 1997, especially in this blockbuster heavy climate (maybe it had a chance at Christmas) with the likes of The Mummy 3 and Tropic Thunder still to open.
Contrary to what you might think, there were actually other movies opening this weekend. The latest Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly and Adam McKay (director of Anchorman, Talladega Nights) comedy actually surprisingly didn’t flop and earned a very cool $30 million which Columbia Pictures should be happy with as it was budgeted for $65 million. Oh yes… these two stars don’t come cheap these days.
The R-Rated comedy will need to sustain heavy pressure next week from The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Empreor if it is to make a good sized profit.
Mamma Mia has amazingly managed to sustain, no doubt helped by the older generation who have told their friends how fun a night seeing a Abba musical in the theatre can be. That movie is now up to $62.7 million after two weeks and carrying a budget of $52 million.
The mega flop of the weekend was the awful looking X-Files: I Want to Believe which unsurprisingly with it’s “nothing new” trailer earned only $10.2 million, some $20 million less than the opening gross of the last film in 1998, at the peek of the show’s popularity. The geeks were clearly still infuated with “The Bat”. Thankfully for 20th Century Fox, Mulder and Scully were able to be convinced to work on the cheap… and the movie was only budgeted for $30 million so it was a quick and low risk production.
Still unless serious money is spent to make a real epic movie (which is unlikely now) you would think this franchise is done.
Elsewhere, the long time releases of Journey to the Center of the Earth ($60.2 million gross, $60 million budget), Hancock ($200 million gross, $150 million budget) and Wall*E ($195 million gross, $180 million budget) all surprassed the amount they were made for this week.
source – coming soon, box office mojo
7 Comments
“it is certainly as good as recent epics like The Departed and even Michael Mann’s Heat”
Superior to Departed for sure, but nope, not Heat.
Fair play to Nolan though. To even have a comic book character film compared to films like The Departed and The Godfather is high praise indeed.
I know that it’s blasphemy to speak in an ill tone of the Godfather, but if people had read the book before seeing the movie, they would realize that it’s only slightly more successful book-to-movie adaptation than The Da Vinci Code. Godfather II is where it shines, not the first one. It’s about time something knocked it off the high horse for even a few seconds.
Actually I’ve just this minute finished watching The Godfather. Its sequel is more technically polished but the original simply oozes class on every other level.
The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger’s performance, and the rebooted superhero film are no doubt formidable factors for this weekend; but I believe the more fun, upbeat Mummy 3 will kick ass! Brendan Fraser and Mummies on the loose, heck yes.
@ Paul
I agree, and I think that’s why the original film has been so successful. I can’t deny that it’s one of the snappiest dressers at the party. But I’m more of one for the overall perfection, which is why I tend toward the second Gyadfatha.
I never liked Godfather Part 2. I’ve always felt that there’s far too much time put between the editing in the parallel stories. I know that most people think it’s done flawlessly, but to me it’s too hefty. I’d prefer to see the two stories split into two seperate films. But that’s just me, I guess.
The idea of actually arguing over whether one movie is better than another movie is flat out retarded. You can ‘argue’ in the sense of having an intelligent conversation discussing which aspects of the film(s) are delievered better, but the fact remains that one single piece of art can never be any better or worse than any other piece of art. The only way to truly find a superior in a side-by-side comparisson is to judge it agaisnt whatever it’s goal is – i.e., one can determine that a Geo Metro is better at saving gasoline than a Hummr H2, and you can make this claim because there is hard evidence supporting the tangible claim. With films/art the only comparisson you could make is “which film is better at BEING ART,” and when most people can’t even agree on what ‘art’ is in the first place, I dont’ think anybody will ever agree on what makes a piece of art ‘good,’ ‘bad,’ ‘better,’ or ‘worse.’ Though, people will try, lol.