'The Dark Knight' Fastest Movie Ever to $200 Million

The Dark Knight has broken two more Hollywood record, and they weren't even close. By earning $24 million on Monday and another $20 million Tuesday, according to Box Office Mojo, the Batman Begins sequel is by far the fastest movie to $200 million, beating the old record by three days. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest accomplished the feat in eight days back in 2006. So The Dark Knight is now the fastest to $100 million and $200 million, and we're even going to upgrade the film's chances to break $300 million. We had been predicting 13 days, a full three days quicker than the current record held by Dead Man's Chest. Now, however, it appears likely that The Dark Knight will beat $300 million in ten days, eleven tops. The second record to fall to Christopher Nolan, Christian Bale, and Heath Ledger is the highest grossing movie in five days (it also holds the record for totals on opening day, two days, three days, and four days). Get this: Star Wars Episode III was the previous record holder, earning $172 million in five days. The Dark Knight technically beat that number with a day to spare. Unbelievable. One record The Dark Knight may never break, though, is the percentage it will gross over its budget compared to Tim Burton's original. In 1989, Batman made $255 million on a $35 million budget. Do the math on a movie that cost $180 million and you're looking at well over a billion dollars in ticket sales in the U.S. to match that production. Also, the original Batman, when adjusted for inflation (which is not my favorite game to play for a number of reasons), would have earned $433 million. It was quite the blockbuster in its own right. The phenomenal success of the this movie will more than likely help 2008 beat 2007 in terms of total box office. The only real question that remains for The Dark Knight is how long it can go at this torrid pace. Three weeks? A month? $400 million is beginning to seem less like a possibility and more like an eventuality, despite the fact that only two movies have done it in the past six years; there were actually three movies to cross that barrier between 1998 and 2002, so we're kind of overdue, anyway.

Comments

[Haley]

Right on Dark Knight. I'm totally rooting for you. The jewel of modern cinema.

[Lifelong Batman Fanatic]

Well deserved! I'm so excited. I speak for all Batman fans, we are so grateful for Chris Nolan, Christian Bale and Heath Ledger!

[M.Filler]

Well youre way of with the original Batmans budget, it was closer to 50 million (BoxOfficemojo is always right), and you can adjust that to inflation if you want to play with it more. And from the 411 million it got from the box office, Nicholson took 54 million dollars (+6 from salary = 60 million dollars) , ouch.

[M.Filler]

Fuck I blew that message because no one will get the
sarcasm of that boxofficemojo- line. Damned