The Dark Knight probably won’t sink Titanic’s record
Despite breaking several box-office records, one may remain out of reach for The Dark Knight – the one set in 1997 by Titanic.
The romantic drama raked in $600.8 million domestically and $1.24 billion internationally to become the top-grossing movie of all time. So far The Dark Knight has scored $441.6 million domestically and $263.5 million internationally — that’s just in its first four weekends — which would seem to put it on course to sink Titanic.
However, The Hollywood Reporter points to an iceberg in The Dark Knight’s path: DVD sales. Warner Bros. likely will release the movie on DVD in December to take advantage of the holiday season, which will probably put a dent in the box office: “How many people are going to go see Dark Knight at the theater when it’s also playing in their living room?”
Don’t weep for Warner Bros., though. The Dark Knight is expected to cross $500 million by Labor Day, and reach between $515 million and $520 million before it leaves North American theaters.
The Ticker
• Watchmen director Zack Snyder discusses the movie’s run time — 2 hours and 50 minutes, currently — the “moral dilemma” of the comic’s ending, and Alan Moore’s hatred of adaptations of his work: “… The point of the movie is not to replace the graphic novel. Look, after the trailer came out, Watchmen went to #2 on Amazon and suddenly hundreds of thousands of copies of the graphic novel are selling. That’s all I can ask for. If the movie is successful, that’s great. But in the end, I want people to read [Moore's] book” [MTV.com]
• Joss Whedon pitched Warner Bros. a reboot of the Batman franchise before Christopher Nolan was tapped for the gig: “In my version, there was actually a new [villain], it wasn’t one of the classics — which is probably why they didn’t use it,” he laughed. “It was more of a ‘Hannibal Lector’ type — he was somebody already in Arkham Asylum that Bruce went and sort of studied with. It was a whole thing — I get very emotional about it, I still love the story. Maybe I’ll get to do it as a comic one day.” [Splash Page]
• Seth Green and Breckin Meyer are joining NBC’s Heroes for multi-episode arcs. They’ll play comics fans from Atlanta who cross paths with one of the Heroes. [The Ausiello Report]
• Sony Pictures has hired screenwriters Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless to pen the update of Flash Gordon. [The Hollywood Reporter]
• Iron Man will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on Sept. 30. [The Hollywood Reporter]
Should The Dark Knight receive an Oscar nomination for Best Picture? [RopeofSilicon]
August 12th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
As much as I share Moore’s instinctive apprehension about adaptations of his work … it’s really getting hard for me to dislike Snyder. He certainly seems to get Watchmen a hell of a lot more than the Wachowskis got V For Vendetta, and I actually liked that movie, misguided though it was.
August 12th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Titanic is a masterpiece.
August 12th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Masterpiece? No… Good movie, but one I don’t need to ever sit through again. Although Kate Winslet can stretch naked across my couch anytime she wants.
Anyhow, I’ve seen TDK three times and I’m hoping to see it at least once, maybe twice, before it leaves theatres. If it’s still making money, why pull it? I seem to recall the last Harry Potter movie still playing in a few local theatres when the DVD hit, overlapping for short while. No reason for it not to happen with TDK.
Further, should TDK score some Oscar nods (Ledger, naturally, but Best Picture/Best Director nods are at least possible) there’s a chance WB will reissue the film to theatres. That happens with Oscar nominees/winners sometimes. It’s not unrealistic.
Regardless, the film’s a smash no matter how you slice it. Sure, Gone With the Wind, Star Wars, and Titanic will have all sold more tickets. So what? There wasn’t even TV when GWTW was made, and there were no home computers when SW was made. I don’t think there were VCRs yet either, and cable TV and home video games were in their infancy (Pong, anyone?). When Titanic was made, DVDs were just getting started. There’s a lot more competition for people’s time and money now.
Hell, there are probably people who have bootleg DVDs of, or have illegally downloaded, TDK right now. Yet it’s still going strong.
August 12th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Oh, and Star Wars has had the benefit of having been reissued to theatres two or three times past its initial run as well. I remember seeing it again and again in the early 80’s, and then there was the Special (cough, cough) Edition.
I also remember SW playing for something like seven or eight months at the local theatres where I lived. That’s just something you won’t see anymore.
August 13th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Let me modify my comments from yesterday… The last HP film (or maybe it was the one before that, I forget) was still playing in a couple of BUDGET (second-run) theatres in my area when the DVD was released. Not in the first-run theatres. I don’t know if that’s common or not. Still nothing like 1977-78 though, when the first SW movie was still playing first-run 30+ weeks after its debut.
August 16th, 2008 at 3:00 am
Well in France we did sink the Titanic, with “Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis”.