Box office report
“The Dark Knight” topped the box office for the third straight weekend, as Batman and the Joker edged closer to the $400 million mark.
The “Batman Begins” sequel made another $43.8 million over the weekend, according to the Associated Press. It bested another sequel, ”The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” which wrapped up $42.5 million and second place in its opening weekend.
“The Dark Knight” has nabbed $394.9 million haul in 17 days, according to Sunday studio estimates reported by the AP. The Warner Bros. release should zip past the $400 million mark by today or Tuesday, Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner, told the AP.
That would be on the film’s 18th or 19th day of release. Either way, it appears that “The Dark Knight” has another box office record in the bag; unless something drastic happens, the Batman movie will become the fastest film to cross the $400 million mark. The current record holder, ”Shrek 2,” took 43 days to make $400 million, according to the AP.
Among other records, the Batman film snatched the all-time opening weekend mark from “Spider-Man 3″ by making $158.4 million in its debut.
“It’s a film that is just rewriting the record books every day and redefining our notions of what a blockbuster can be,” Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers, told the AP.
He predicted “The Dark Knight” will top $500 million. But he wouldn’t speculate on the big question – whether it will threaten “Titanic,” the all-time domestic revenue record-holder with $600.8 million.
According to the AP story, even if “The Dark Knight” makes more coin than “Titanic,” it won’t sell more tickets than James Cameron’s epic romance. Admission prices are up more than 50 percent since “Titanic” came out in 1997, according to Media By Numbers. “The Dark Knight” would have to make about $900 million to match the number of tickets sold for “Titanic.”
In terms of dollar figures, that AP notes that “The Dark Knight” seems guaranteed to surpass the original “Star Wars,” which is the all-time No. 2 with $461 million, as well as “Shrek 2″ ($436.5 million), “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” ($434.9 million) and “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace” ($431.1 million).
“The Dark Knight” was guaranteed a huge opening weekend because of the media and fan frenzy over the late Heath Ledger’s deranged performance as the Joker. (Ledger died in January from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.) But the movie’s success clearly has gone beyond that sole factor.
“The movie has grown in terms of its base audience from primarily what was conceived as a young male movie to a movie for everybody, from 8 to 80,” Fellman told the AP. “They’re going to see it because of the reviews, they’re going to see it because of the word of mouth. They’re going just to see what it’s all about, and they all like it.”
“The Dark Knight” also has raked in $202.5 million overseas, the AP reported.
“The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” Universal’s third film in the franchise, gave Batman a run for his money, but notched a smaller opening than either of its predecessors. ”The Mummy” opened with $43.4 million in 1999 and “The Mummy Returns” came back with $68.1 million in 2001.
The third ”Mummy” movie, which took franchise star Brendan Fraser to China to face a Jet Li mummy, scared up $59.5 million in 28 countries overseas.
“It looked like we could do somewhere between $45 and $50 million, but no one could have foreseen the juggernaut `The Dark Knight’ has become,” Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal, told the AP.
Kevin Costner (of “Water World” infamy) got another no-confidence vote at the box office. Disney’s “Swing Vote,” about a presidential election that hinges on the lone ballot of Costner’s slacker character, opened in sixth place with a tepid $6.3 million.
In a limited release this weekend, Lionsgate’s horror film “Midnight Meat Train” opened in 102 locations and grossed $32,000, or just $314 per site, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It will soon be scaring people – or not – on DVD.
On the indie film scene, the Sony Pictures Classics drama “Frozen River” opened in seven theaters and grossed $73,322, a promising $10,475 per venue. As I reported last week, I got to see the movie and interview star Melissa Leo for the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, and it deserves all manner of success.
Miramax’s period drama “Brideshead Revisited” added 156 theaters (including AMC Quail Springs in Oklahoma City) for a total of 189 and grossed $1.2 million, or a solid $6,260 per venue and a $1.7 million cumulative take, according to the trade mag.
Here is the top 10 list, from the AP. Note that Brendan Fraser has two movies in the top 5, with the new film version of “Journey to the Center of the Earth” in the fifth spot.
1. “The Dark Knight,” $43.8 million.
2. “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” $42.5 million.
3. “Step Brothers,” $16.3 million.
4. “Mamma Mia!”, $13.1 million.
5. “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” $6.9 million.
6. “Swing Vote,” $6.3 million.
7. “Hancock,” $5.2 million.
8. “WALL-E,” $4.7 million.
9. “The X-Files: I Want to Believe,” $3.4 million.
10. “Space Chimps,” $2.8 million.
-BAM
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
WALL-E finally crossed the $200 million mark this weekend. I’m trying to remember how many movies that makes this year. I know “The Dark Knight,” “Iron Man,” “Kung Fu Panda,” and “Hancock” all did already. Were there any others?