Box Office - 'Dark Knight' Second All-Time, Second This Weekend

The 31-day stranglehold on number one is over. The Dark Knight has finally surrendered the top spot at the U.S. box office, but it did not go quietly. In fact, while most every analyst predicted a drop to third place, the Batman sequel stood its ground and only slipped to second place, passing Star Wars on the all-time list of top-grossing movies in the process; it now only trails Titanic. The new champeen is Tropic Thunder, which did not put up great numbers over its first five days. As a matter of fact, Pineapple Express, last week's number two film, opened more strongly over the same number of days. But the Ben Stiller comedy did outperform the rest of the field each day, so it sits with $37 million so far, according to Box Office Mojo, about five million less than I would have expected. The Dark Knight wound up in second place for two reasons: The new Star Wars movie, The Clone Wars, opened very soft, generating only $15 million, and The Dark Knight only lost 35% of its audience from the previous weekend. That number is significant because it represents the second-smallest drop in the top ten - for the movie that's been in the top then the longest - and that means, of course, that the Batman sequel is getting a lot of return business. The weekend's third new release, Mirrors with Kiefer Sutherland, opened in fourth place, ahead of Pineapple Express, which had a 57% freefall compared to last week. Since we estimated four weeks ago that The Dark Knight would sail past $500 million, and broke that historic box office run down week-by-week, let's see where it stands now versus where we thought it would stand on August 17th. At the time, we said the movie would have made $468 million in 31 days. It's at $471 million, which is within half of one percent, so our math is about as accurate as you could hope for. Last week, we compared the same numbers and The Dark Knight was actually under our estimate, but we also predicted a fifth week finish of $10 million, and it clearly did much better than that. So looking ahead through Halloween, which should represent the last marginally significant weekend in this film's run, if we re-adjust our experiment with the new numbers, we arrive at $535,687,481, and that's without a major increase on Halloween. We believe Warner Bros. could throw the film back into 1,000 theaters or so that weekend as a last hurrah, as an early DVD marketing push, and as a way to capitalize on the fact that The Joker will be the year's biggest costume. So it could be higher than $535 million depending on what the studio opts to do then. Still, this exercise uses the percentages over the same period two years ago for the 2006 record-breaker, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. So far, at least, those numbers have been right on target. I don't see any reason to radically change our approach now, so we're sticking with $535 million or more. The Top Five: 1 - Tropic Thunder ($26 million) 2 - The Dark Knight ($16.7 million) 3 - Star Wars: The Clone Wars ($15 million) 4 - Mirrors ($11.1 million) 5 - Pineapple Express ($10 million)

Comments

[Len Bourret, a Disabled Person]

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L e o n a r d J . B o u r r e t
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e - M a i l : Len9876@juno.com
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August 16, 2008

Mr. Ben Stiller
Red Hour Films
629 North La Brea Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Dear Mr. Stiller:

The boycotters, picketers, protesters, and ticketbuyers have a voice. If we do not like
what we hear and see, we can--at the very least--cause a negative impact on present
and future film projects.

For example, gay and lesbian people boycotted--and so embarassed the orange juice
industry--that they adversely impacted the entire orange industry. As a result, Anita
Bryant apologized to gay and lesbian people for her discrimination and prejudice, after
her career was completedly ruined. Gay and lesbian people have learned to become
strong lobbyists--to effectively control and manipulate the legal and political systems--
for civil liberties, civil unions, and gay marriage. Additionally, caucasians will soon be
outnumbered by african americans and hispanic/latino people. The babyboomers are
also getting old enough to retire--and increasing the number of senior citizens--they,
too, will impact big business, conglomerates, the media (including the film industry),
as well as the legal and political systems. Consumers (including the disABLED) are
rapidly changing the face of America.

Whenever someone holds a 'loaded gun' and points it at someone else--no matter who
it is--it is tragic, and anything but funny.

Even so-called 'voiceless people' are consumers--and, as ticketbuyers, we carry a loud
voice. Ticketbuyers have both power and a voice. We can always issue caveats--and
there will always be others who will heed them. In "Tropic Thunder" (2008), 'retard' is a
negative label or word--which some might consider funny, when used once--but, when
used repetitiously, it most definitely becomes offensive. Laugh that one off.

Be Warned,

Len Bourret
Ticketbuyer

[JM]

People whining about a movie being offensive makes me more likely to see it. Remember, there is no such thing as bad publicity. Look how well The Passion of the Christ did despite people whining about it. If you find a movie offensive just don't watch it. Some of us don't care that it hurts the feelings of overly sensitive people.

[Emo]

How long will it take for the term "mentally challenged" to become offensive? 30 years ago, the term retarded was perfectly acceptable, and if you look at the actual definition...it still should be, because its definition IS the actual description of the mental status:

re•tard /r?'t?rd, –verb (used with object) 1. to make slow; delay the development or progress of (an action, process, etc.); hinder or impede.

The term in-and-off-itself is not offensive. As a matter of fact, it's the perfect description. I don't buy "Flame Handicapped" clothing. But, as people turned it into an offensive term, we moved to "mentally handicapped". BUT, now people find the term "handicapped" offensive because it denotes that there are limits to what that person can do. And Lord knows, in our now overly PC society, we cannot EVER point out that some people are more capable of some things than others. Ever heard the term "Handicap-able"? It's a ridiculous oxymoron. It's that mentality that has driven us to the "everybody wins" way of doing things. "Nobody's a loser, we're all winners"...that's what we teach our kids now. And as they're growing up...they're realizing that it's a bunch of crap. But we can't talk about it (notice I said "talk", not "make fun of") because someone will get their feelings hurt. And nobody is allowed to have hurt feelings.

Some words ARE created to offend. Take the "N" word...it was created to be offensive (if someone can show me where its original intent was not to be offensive, I'd like to see it). Oddly enough, some of those who should be mostly offended by the "N" word, have turned it into a term of affection and/or endearment.

Maybe I'm tired of being called "male". I'm offended by it because it denotes I'm "lacking" ovaries and the ability to give birth. It means that there are some things I'm not capable of. From now on, I'd like to be referred to as "femininely challenged". Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it?

Should we make fun of retarded people? No. I've seen the movie, and I agree that the intent was to make fun of the Hollywood machine...not retarded people. But should we have let the term "retarded" become offensive? No.

When does it stop? Where does the line get drawn and we say, as a society, this has gone too far. Soon...no one will be able to say anything to anyone because they MIGHT get offended.

Sometimes life is hard. Wear a helmet.