blogonawire

If you haven’t seen “The Dark Knight” by now…well, I was going to say something witty, maybe use a simile, but, basically…YOU’RE MISSING OUT! I won’t regale you with my nerd-tastic five star rave review, but instead would like to direct your attention to the moolah…and there is A LOT of it! This movie is breaking box office records left and right, not only in the traditional movie box office, but also at IMAX theatres. IMAX has experienced many firsts with the release of “The Dark Knight.” The film opened in a record 94 IMAX theatres domestically and the movie was partially shot using IMAX cameras, the first ever studio movie to incorporate the IMAX technology. Also, on July 14^th, IMAX hosted its first ever Hollywood premiere.

That’s all fine and dandy, you say, but what about the MONEY! To preface, let me just say that people REALLY wanted to see this movie…here are some numbers (beware, they’re big…)

-Record worldwide IMAX opening weekend at $7 million

-Record domestic IMAX three-day opening weekend at $6.3 million

-Record per screen average at $67,036

-Record number of engagements for any domestic IMAX release at 94

-Record 12:01 a.m. show gross at $641,508

-Record opening day at $2,590,581

-Over $2 million in advance IMAX ticket sales

And this was just at the IMAX! Several IMAX theatres added 3 a.m. showing to accommodate the demand; one venue went so far as to show the movie non-stop for 72 hours! Yesterday IMAX announced that by the end of the day, “The Dark Knight” would reach $20 million worldwide, faster than any other IMAX film. The movie has only been out for 12 days!

So, congrats to IMAX and to Batman for making more money than I’ll ever see in many lifetimes. I think this qualifies Batman for the Black Card…

Here are a few more numbers to mull over (and then sob over why you never pursued your Hollywood career…)

-Midnight showing – $18.5 million, beating the $16.9 million from “Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith”

-Opening day - $67.8 million, beating the $59.8 million from “Spider-Man 3”

-Opening weekend - $158.3 million, beating the $151.1 million from “Spider-Man 3”

-The film reached $300 million in 10 days, beating “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” which took 16 days

-It looks like the film will reach $400 million in 18 days, beating “Shrek 2” which took 43 days

-“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and “Iron Man” have both made a little over $300 million…but they’ve been in theatres for 10 and 13 WEEKS respectively!

-Total domestic gross for “Batman Begins”…$205 million

-It seems that if any movie hopes to de-throne “Titanic” as the highest grossing movie of all time, “The Dark Knight” might have a chance…the only hitch I see…“Titanic” was in theatres for almost a YEAR! “The Dark Knight” will be on DVD by Christmas…