Box office report
“The Dark Knight” broke more box office records in its second weekend of release, as it crossed the $300 million mark in just 10 days.
The “Batman Begins” sequel grossed another $75.6 million over the weekend, again topping the box office and bringing its total gross to more than $314 million, according to the Associated Press.
The widely praised comic book movie became the fastest movie to ever break the $300 million barrier, zipping past 2006′s ”Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” which took 16 days to plunder $300 million.
The Batman film’s $75.6 million (if that estimated number holds, which it probably will) also made it the new record holder for biggest second weekend take, according to Entertainment Weekly. It topped the $72.7 million “Shrek 2″ made in its second weekend in theaters back in 2004.
Warner Bros. head of distribution Dan Fellman told the AP today that “The Dark Knight” could reach the $400 million mark in about 18 days. That would demolish the “Shrek 2″ record set by making $400 million in 43 days.
Fellman told the AP he was surprised that the Batman movie made $300 million in just a week and a half.
“What can you say? We’ve been getting a lot of repeat business coming in,” Fellman told the AP. “Our audience is expanding, like you would expect with terrific word-of-mouth and strong reviews. Our audience is getting a little bit older, that’s the good news. We’re finding the younger demographic, male and female, coming back.”
Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers, told the AP that “The Dark Knight” has a legitimate shot of surpassing James Cameron’s 1997 epic “Titanic” as the highest-grossing film in U.S. history. “Titanic” made $600,788,188 domestically, a huge, seemingly untouchable record – until now.
“The `Titanic’ record has sat in a lock box for 10 years. It’s a tall order but if any film has a chance to surpass that number, it’s got to be `Dark Knight,’” Dergarabedian told the AP.
Believe it or not, there are other movies at theaters, and Will Ferrell’s new comedy “Step Brothers” opened in the No. 2 slot with a respectable $30 million.
The raunchy R-rated comedy puts Ferrell back in prime box office shape. “Step Brothers” raked in almost as much in one weekend as Ferrell’s last movie, the comic basketball flop “Semi-Pro,” did in its entire theatrical run. (“Semi-Pro made $33.5 million the entire time it was in theaters, according to EW.)
“We’d hoped to be in the mid-to-high $20 (millions), so to hit $30 (million) is a great start,” Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony, told the AP. “Having the chemistry of Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly together again, reuniting with (director) Adam McKay who did `Talladega Nights,’ it’s great. They both immerse themselves and the humor comes from their connection.”
In the No. 3 spot, it was another flashback to last weekend, with the movie version of the ABBA musical “Mamma Mia!” singing and dancing its way to another $17.9 million.
According to EW, the effervescent musical’s second weekend gross dropped only 36 percent from its opening weekend. See, I told you those peppy ABBA songs are tough to resist.
The news wasn’t so perky for the other new release at the box office (besides “Step Brothers”). The sequel “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” made an estimated $10.2 million for fourth place.
Released 10 years after the last movie and six years after the sci-fi TV series went off the air, the sequel clearly didn’t make people believe they wanted to spend money on it.
“The hardcore `X-Files’ fans, they’re happy. And frankly, that’s who the movie was made for,” Chris Aronson, distribution executive for 20th Century Fox, told the AP.
Here are the top 10 movies for the weekend. Notice Will Smith’s “Hancock” sitting pretty in sixth place after its July 4 weekend release. The superhero movie made $8.2 million this weekend, which pushes it past the $200 million mark, according to the AP.
1. “The Dark Knight,” $75.63 million.
2. “Step Brothers,” $30 million.
3. “Mamma Mia!” $17.9 million.
4. “The X-Files: I Want to Believe,” $10.2 million.
5. “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” $9.4 million.
6. “Hancock,” $8.2 million.
7. “WALL-E,” $6.3 million.
8. “Hellboy II: The Golden Army,” $4.9 million.
9. “Space Chimps,” $4.4 million.
10. “Wanted,” $2.7 million.
-BAM
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Comments
Wow, Jim feels very strongly about this. He must be a Spiderman fan!
I feel his comment is valuable because it gave me a new phrase: “a sniffle’s worth of common sense.”
I’m assuming he meant to put an apostrophe there. He seems to have a little trouble with the rules of punctuation and grammar. Perhaps he’s not from here. I’ve certainly never heard this expression before.
Nevertheless, I like it. It added pizzazz and style to an otherwise curiously angry rant against the simple reporting of box office numbers. Were the numbers supposed to be reported for “Heath Ledger’s Last Movie” instead of for “Batman” or “The Dark Knight?” The last time I checked that wasn’t the title of the movie.
Please bear in mind this article was not about WHY the movie made so much money. It was about HOW MUCH money was made by this movie. References to Ledger were therefore not necessary and their exclusion was hardly a sign of inaccuracy or dishonesty.
Come on, Jim. Show a sniffle’s worth of common sense.
So it’s “The Movie Hereafter To Be Referred To As Heath Ledger’s Final Performance” or “TMHTBRTAHLFP” for brevity’s sake, rather than “The Dark Knight”, eh? I like it!! Let’s see Scarlett Johannsen spit that out without flubbing on Oscar night. (In a totally unrelated aside, has anyone checked out that young lady’s publicity still for “The Spirit”? HOT!HOT!HOT!YOWZA!!!)
Be that as it may, I find myself agreeing with Jim insofar as the media/Ledger love fest in reference to articles, reviews, etc., not necessarily here but certainly elsewhere. However, I do not believe that this is an adequate explanation for the commercial success the film enjoys. Curiousity with regard to Ledger’s last role may have put some rear-ends in seats, but hardly enough to account for the undeniably phenominal popularity of the picture.
BTW, it’s spelled “conniving”.
Hmmm…You know Jim, I looked up the title “Heath Ledgers final movie (sic)” on both imdb.com and also rottentomatos.com and you know what, I didn’t find anything!? I was shocked!! However,I did look up “The Dark Knight” and was floored when I discovered that it was indeed one of the highest grossing movies of all time!
Heath Ledger may have something to do with it, yes, but the fact that there are millions of die-hard BATMAN fans out there with money to burn had just a little to do with The Dark Knight making some cash. Last time I looked, there weren’t too many Dead Actor conventions in the works. Nor do I see Heath Ledger comic books just flying off the shelves.
Yes, it’s tragic that the man died. Yes, it’s his last film, but that does not mean it will drive sales. Just ask, oh John Candy (Wagon’s East) or Aaliyah (Queen of the Damned.)
BTW, a group comprised of more that two people would have “a lick of common sense AMONG the lot of them.”
How idiotic can this be. “BATMAN”, nor the movie as a whole, had a single iota to do with the reason this film has made so much money. Viewers didn’t go to this movie to watch another “Batman” flick, they went because it was Heath Ledgers final movie.
Batman didn’t outgross Spiderman3 in sales, Heath Ledger did. Batman isn’t on it’s way to be the biggest money maker, Heath Ledgers final appearance is.
I sure wish the media still had at least a sniffles worth of common sense within it, but all they can think about is “What Headline will sell more copy.” Accuracy, or even a hint of honesty has no place in print anymore. Journalists are gone, and in their place are coniving copy writers without a lick of common sense between the lot of them.