Sunday
10Aug2008
Box Office - 'Dark Knight' Wins Again, Now Third Highest-Grossing Film in U.S. History
Sunday, August 10, 2008 at 11:03AM 
What an unusual five days it's been at the box office.
Pineapple Express broke through big time on
Wednesday, setting an August record for a Wednesday release, and then trailed
off quickly. And just when it looked like
The Dark Knight had reigned for its last days
heading into the weekend, the Batman sequel came back in a big way to claim its
fourth box office victory in a row, and almost certainly its last.
With $26 million in weekend ticket sales, according to
the new
Box Office Mojo estimates, The Dark Knight has now amassed $441
million in 24 days. That's the third-highest total in U.S. history. (Nobody make
the case for inflation, please, because
I'm tired of arguing it.)The film will
very likely beat
Star Wars and its $460 million by this time next week, meaning
it will have taken a month to become the second film to ever rake in over $465
million.
As for Pineapple Express, the Wednesday opening did hurt
its weekend totals, a theory we put out there on Thursday. So many people wanted
to see it immediately, that by the time the weekend arrived, there was little
fire left. In fact, the only day where it showed an increase was going to Friday
from Thursday; the
Judd Apatow-produced stoner comedy starring
Seth Rogen and
James Franco lost audience on Saturday and on Sunday, while
The Dark Knight
gained about 40% of viewers on Saturday, the day that really put the sequel over
the edge.
The same kind of early release blahs hit
The Sisterhood
of the Traveling Pants 2, which never really got on track anyway, taking in just
over $19 million over five days, and during the weekend, struggled to make $10
million. A fourth-place finish is all the film could muster, even with a near
freefall by
The Mummy, which held on for a third-place finish.
Step Brothers continued to do good business despite the
new comedy in theaters; it rounded out the weekend's top five and has earned $80
million. $100 million seems unlikely, but there's a fair chance it could enter
that club in another three or four weeks.
Mamma Mia! is the newest member in
that club, incidentally, and internationally, the film has nearly grossed $250
million.
But because there's really only one storyline this
summer, let's ask what the new numbers mean for The Dark Knight. Regular Big
Picture readers know we've looked into our crystal ball, hoping to predict where
this movie will eventually end up.
Titanic's $600 million is still safe, we
believe, but there's a very real chance that The Dark Knight will make $535
million, maybe even more if the studio is smart and boosts its release again at
Halloween.
We calculated its week-by-week performance based on a
standard 40% drop during the week and then followed the weekend percentages for
Pirates 2, itself a former opening weekend record breaker. It looks like that
was a pretty smart formula to follow: After 24 days, we had pegged The Dark
Knight at just under $446 million, and it's roughly a day off that pace.
So if it continues to grow at the rate we projected - and we see no reason to
change that hypothesis now - our estimates would place the film at $512 million
after the Labor Day weekend. Because it's performing very close to those
numbers, I think we can safely assume $500 million by Labor Day, if not a couple
million more.
Reader Comments (5)
wow!!!!..i thot the dark knight only beat spiderman..but beat star wars????...thats unbelievable!!!..can't wait for the sequel..
The fact that it has made a lot of money is undeniable, however, any time one is cares, and therefore wishes to rank "all time" anything money, you HAVE to place it in context of inflation as well as relative dollar strength so if absolute ranking is what you are trying to prove, than you have to adjust for inflation, i don't care how "tired you are of arguing it" - it science. If you're only trying to prove that it is one the highest grossing movies - point taken.
I'm tired of arguing it, Anthony, for reasons you clearly didn't bother to read. The inflation argument is full of holes. Please read the discussion in the following link. My rationale is laid out there, battling the exact same, rather under-supported, claim.
http://www.getthebigpicture.net/blog/2008/8/5/dark-knight-passes-400-million-we-crunch-more-numbers.html
Thank you for finally arguing the other side of the inflation BS.. I agree there are holes and everyone and their Grandmother wants to throw the inflation arguement out there against TDK without bothering to recognize these holes.. At least you are there to show the truth even though they wont listen..
Anthony, I'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish. It's a pretty simple concept. We're talking about dollars earned. Only two movies have ever brought in more money than The Dark Knight. We aren't talking about ticket sales, or per screen averages, or anything like that. Just dollars earned. You can definitely interpret the numbers by taking inflation into account. But why only focus on inflation? Why not any other economic factor? Unemployment rate, gas prices, the housing market, interest rates, etc. If you want to complicate it there are many things other than inflation that can have an influence.