The Dark Knight Breaks Weekend Box Office Record

posted by Ross Melnick on July 20, 2008 at 5:25 pm

The Dark Knight has reportedly broken the three-day box office record with $155.3 million, compared to Spider-Man 3’s $151.1 million, according to USA Today and the Associated Press. Scott Bowles writes in USA Today:

There were few records left standing in Batman’s wake by the end of the weekend. With the death of Heath Ledger, who played the Joker, glowing early reviews and director Christopher Nolan’s standing with the comic-book community, it was clear that the second installment of the revitalized franchise was headed for the history books one minute into its opening weekend.

The IMAX screenings have already earned $6.2 million on 94 screens, easily beating Spider-Man 3’s record of $4.7 million.

Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood Daily is reporting the same numbers, but she notes that some rival studios are questioning the projected weekend total … stay tuned.

Comments (9)

moviebuff82
moviebuff82 on July 20, 2008 at 7:12 pm

eat ur heart out spidey

KingBiscuits
KingBiscuits on July 20, 2008 at 8:39 pm

The other studios are just jealous. For example, did Fox really think that Space Chimps would even beat Batman for a second?

DonSolosan
DonSolosan on July 20, 2008 at 11:19 pm

The point probably wasn’t to “beat” Batman, but to counter-program it. Still, it seems like a crazy bad move, in a summer that’s so crowded.

markp
markp on July 21, 2008 at 2:13 am

Blah, blah, blah, what the heck did you expect when every freakin multiplex had the darn thing playing on 7 or 8 screens. This is exactly what I have been saying is wrong with the industry. And in 2 weeks, it will dead.

Chris Utley
Chris Utley on July 21, 2008 at 5:01 am

This will be dead in 2 MONTHS (if that!)– not 2 weeks, dude. If any movie has a shot of sinking “Titanic,” this is the one!

markp
markp on July 21, 2008 at 2:04 pm

O.K. Chris, we’ll see. I’m just going to throw tis out there however. You are thinking in terms of money as far as sinking “Titanic”. I’m thinking in terms of longevity. In 1997-98. I ran “Titanic” in a 10 screen theater for 7 months, of which 6 of them it played on both screens to usually packed houses. Today I work in different 10 screen movie theatre, and we have “Dark Knight” on 3 screens. Do you think its going to be there 6 to 7 months playing to packed houses all the time? My point is, that the movie is so massed shipped, that it will make all its cash in a few weeks, and be gone. All anyone else wants today is to see which new movie could end up being # 1 of all time. I hope this clarifies the point I was trying to make.

JodarMovieFan
JodarMovieFan on July 21, 2008 at 6:12 pm

Variety is reporting that the final numbers for the weekend are that the film grossed $158.3 M.

moviebuff82
moviebuff82 on July 21, 2008 at 7:51 pm

see the next headline on CT. BTW, Titanic played the Loews in Wayne for six or so months into the spring long before it came out on vhs during the fall of 98 and on dvd the year after. Long live Titanic!!!

markp
markp on July 22, 2008 at 12:55 pm

My thoughts exactly Justin.

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