Saturday
Dec062008
Saturday, December 6, 2008 at 10:23AM Official: 'Dark Knight' Oscar/Billion Dollar Push Coming
The Dark Knight is sure to be the top DVD this
holiday season. It comes out on Tuesday, and if you don't think it will be the
top selling DVD ever, you should probably reevaluate that position.
On the other hand, why bother with the DVD? Or more to the point, why put it back in theaters 45 days after the DVD comes out? Perhaps they won't cancel each other out, but I would be surprised if Academy voters and film journalists who vote in different groups around the country don't get The Dark Knight on DVD. Also, Warner Bros. has to know the film stands a much better chance of collecting millions of dollars at this point on home video and not in theaters.
We were pushing this re-release ourselves, but for a Halloween re-launch, when it could have capitalized on people attending midnight screenings in costumes and before the DVD was an option. And since a very real reason for this move now is to help The Dark Knight break $1 billion in worldwide box office, I think doing it this way is a little bass ackwards. I'm certain it will make the $4 million it needs to get to a billion, but if you want it to make an even more obscene amount of money, why wait until after people already own it? It's still not going to be enough to catch Titanic, so I'm not sure I completely get the concept.
One interesting note: At first, The Dark Knight was assumed to be returning only to IMAX theaters in January, but now it appears that the film will get a nationwide release in conventional theaters, as well.
Reader Comments (7)
I really think they are only doing this for the Oscar season. It will also be nice being able to ask for a ticket to The Dark Knight again in theaters if you don't want to see whatever crap may be out then. Plus, The Dark Knight is the kind of movie that is meant to be seen on a big screen, especially the IMAX screen.
I think most movies that are contenders or nominated for a Best Picture Oscar are usually re-released in that January/February time anyway. I'm just glad that I'll see it on IMAX again... for the fourth time.
I really thought that people would have gained enough perspective to realise that the praise for The Dark Knight was out of proportion to the merits of the film.
I personally didn't like it much and nobody has been able to explain to me why it would deserve the status as one of the best films of all time.
It is far too flawed for that, particularly through bad editing but also through its many action scenes devoid of dynamics and masked with a lot of loud noises.
I can quite easilty recount the storyline from Batman Begins but with The Dark Knight I am struggling to explain the story in a coherent way, it's just too sprawly. I even saw it twice to make sure that I hadn't missed anything the first time. I hadn't.
I hope that when people will be able to watch it in the comfort of their own homes they will realise that it's not as great as they remember it from the summer hype and that we hopefully will hear a lot more tempered views about it.
I agree that it's got a lot of flaws, editing being a big one, and as I've stated many times, there are just too many characters. It is by no means an efficient movie. And ultimately, that's why I can't consider it one of the all-time great films. Great films can stand up to those questions, in the rare instances that they'd even be asked.
Glad you agree. I think more critics should be critical.
In a way, I see The Dark Knight as Chris Nolan's first tecnical failure. I cannot understand why the cut ended up as it did.
Memento is of course a masterpiece of editing and Insomnia has an amazing steady and deliberate pace. Batman Begins and The Prestige were a bit looser but they still kept together within a greater framework.
I would hope that Nolan has the courage of scaling down the third and, hopefully final, Batman film. More noise, explosions, characters and plot holes would simply be unbearable.
If I had to fire one complaint at The Dark Knight, I'd borrow from another one of your favorites, Lengthy: Amadeus. I just think there are too many notes. There is a great film in here, even the best comic book movie ever to this point, but man, you have to wade through a lot of unnecessary stuff to get there.
Well, that's what the philistines thought of Mozart's music ;) The correct view is of course that Mozart's music has exactly the right number of notes.
But you are absolutely correct about The Dark Knight; it has too many characters and disparate events.
That's surprising because overloaded films are usually a sign of hubris or a lack of narrative skill. Previously Nolan hasn't suffered from either.
Anyway, that's why I hope Nolan will scale down the third instalment despite universal pressure to top The Dark Knight.
Sometimes less is more, however.
Why would I pay $10.00 to go see amovie I ahve already seen when I can pay $20.00 to own it for life. I should have a stand selling copies of the DVD by the line into the theater.