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Sunday
03Aug2008

Box Office - 'Dark Knight' Rallies, Wins Again

DateSunday, August 3, 2008 at 10:54AM
If anything speaks to the staying power of The Dark Knight, it's the impressive rally it displayed on Saturday and Sunday, which according to the latest estimates released by Box Office Mojo, will be enough to give the film its third straight victory at the U.S. box office.

That didn't seem likely when we learned Friday's numbers, which indicated that The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor had staked out a $3 million lead. But the new release was unable to sustain that momentum, slipping behind The Dark Knight on both Saturday and Sunday. Remember, though, that these numbers are estimates, and the distance between the films is around a million dollars, so it's possible that The Mummy could still be crowned the weekend's champ when the actual amounts are released Monday.

Step Brothers performed well for audiences wanting something other than heroes and villains, finishing third and already doubled the output of Ferrell's previous comedy, Semi-Pro. Mamma Mia! is now with $15 million of $100 million and is destined to hit around $120 million or more before it's all said and done, although it's really counting on international box office, where it has already made $140 million. Kevin Costner's Swing Vote finished out of the top five, managing only $6.3 million.

Two questions about The Dark Knight have been answered in its third weekend. The first is, could the movie make $400 million in 17 days? No. But it should in 18 days, because the Batman sequel now has $395 million in the bank.

Question number two is how much of its audience will the biggest movie of the year retain from week to week? Last weekend, The Dark Knight lost 54% of its crowd, but when you consider the immediate impact of the film, with overnight screenings and all the rest, that's not a bad number at all.

Earlier this week, we researched the possibility of whether or not The Dark Knight could ever surpass Titanic's titanic number of $600 million in the U.S. (the short answer is no), and that exercise was based on a lot of educated assumptions. One of those assumptions was that, like the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie, The Dark Knight would lose 43% of its second weekend audience in its third weekend. It only lost 42%, so as of now, it's still on pace to break $500 million in a month or less, but getting that extra $100 million will be nearly impossible.

It will, however, be the fastest movie ever to $400 million, and when you consider that it will only be two days behind the old record for $300 million for its $400 million total, you can start to really value the film's accomplishment.

Can it go another weekend at the top? The real question is can Pineapple Express make $25 million while showing in under 3,000 theaters? If it can - and that's not a sure thing by any stretch of the imagination - then The Dark Knight would lose its grip on number one. But if Pineapple comes in around $20 million, there's nothing else out there that could strip the crown away.

The Top Five:

1 - The Dark Knight ($43.8 million)

2 - The Mummy ($42.4 million)

3 - Step Brothers ($16.3 million)

font face="Verdana">4 - Mamma Mia! ($13.1 million)

5 - Journey to the Center of the Earth ($6.9 million)

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , , , , , , , , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment1 Comment |

Reader Comments (1)

Finally saw TDK this weekend, and my screening was standing room only. This movie has legs!

Sunday, August 3, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterWill

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