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Craig Younkin
'Dark Knight' Destroyer of Records
By Philip Friedman Published July 19, 2008
I had expected The Dark Knight to pick up the midnight and possibly the one-day record, but the $66.4 million is a bit of a surprise.
Dark Knight handily broke Spider-Man 3's one day record with an astounding $66.4 million. Back in May 2007, it seemed like Spider-Man 3 would be able to enjoy its record for some time. I don't remember much talk of The Dark Knight as a possibility to take the record, but sure enough, it not only took the one day record by over 10%, it took away the fan-coveted midnight record held by Revenge of the Sith since May 2005. The $18.5 million in thousands of sold out midnight showings gave The Dark Knight a great head start on the one-day record.
I had expected The Dark Knight to pick up the midnight and possibly the one-day record, but the $66.4 million is a bit of a surprise. I also expected a bigger portion of the gross to be from midnights. I'm hitting a mental road block with projection right now though. You can take a look at what I thought before The Dark Knight was released over at the Outlook article. There have been plenty of predictions made, you can check them out in the headline section here and here.
Easy to forget, but Mamma Mia! had an impressive open in second place with $9.7 million. That would have been a great first day on its own, but as counter-programming to the biggest one-day open ever it's a big accomplishment and one of the reasons the overall box office is in uncharted territory. Mamma Mia will likely be frontloaded, obviously not as much as The Dark Knight, but a Saturday decline would not be surprising.
Everything about this weekend is surprisingly strong. Space Chimps with $2.5 million? That is while facing competition from WALL-E and Journey to the Center of the Earth. I know the tracking didn't support it, but I was thinking $2.5 million for the entire weekend. The victims of these strong new releases? Hellboy 2 -77%, Meet Dave -65%, Wanted -58% and Hancock -57%.
I had expected The Dark Knight to pick up the midnight and possibly the one-day record, but the $66.4 million is a bit of a surprise. I also expected a bigger portion of the gross to be from midnights. I'm hitting a mental road block with projection right now though. You can take a look at what I thought before The Dark Knight was released over at the Outlook article. There have been plenty of predictions made, you can check them out in the headline section here and here.
Easy to forget, but Mamma Mia! had an impressive open in second place with $9.7 million. That would have been a great first day on its own, but as counter-programming to the biggest one-day open ever it's a big accomplishment and one of the reasons the overall box office is in uncharted territory. Mamma Mia will likely be frontloaded, obviously not as much as The Dark Knight, but a Saturday decline would not be surprising.
Everything about this weekend is surprisingly strong. Space Chimps with $2.5 million? That is while facing competition from WALL-E and Journey to the Center of the Earth. I know the tracking didn't support it, but I was thinking $2.5 million for the entire weekend. The victims of these strong new releases? Hellboy 2 -77%, Meet Dave -65%, Wanted -58% and Hancock -57%.
'The Dark Knight' Articles
- Dark Knight's Path to $500M
August 18, 2008 It looks like The Dark Knight will cross the $500 million mark during the first showings on Labor Day. -- Philip Friedman - Craig's The Dark Knight review A
July 19, 2008 Nothing short of a masterpiece. I feel it’s arguably one of the best and most riveting movies of the past decade. -- Craig Younkin - Outlook: Which Records for 'Dark Knight'?
July 17, 2008 Midnights will be essential. By the time the normal weekend business begins at around 10am on Friday, The Dark Knight could already be one third of the way to a one-day record (Spider-Man 3's $59.842 million). -- Philip Friedman - Dark Knight: Live Coverage
July 11, 2008 In anticipation of what will likely be the biggest movie of 2008, we'll be hosting live coverage of The Dark Knight throughout its opening weekend. -- Staff of LMI - The Batman Franchise: A Recap
July 10, 2008 Unlike 2008, I was completely ignorant of any buzz, reviews or box office implications when I went in to the theater. -- Philip Friedman
