3. The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight already had all the marketing it needed on its side to make it an opening weekend success. That marketing campaign was also known as Batman Begins' theatrical run, and it was a pretty successful campaign at that. Little did audiences know that The Dark Knight was going to be an almost completely different animal from Batman Begins, which was a great (if not stereotypical) origin story. The sequel Christopher Nolan had in mind, and eventually released, was a vicious story of justice versus chaos, good versus evil, and convenient versus appropriate means of action. In order to convey those messages, the world of Gotham City needed to come to life like it had never done before. After all, this was Nolan's stab at The Joker, and up until the concept art was released everyone was laughing for all the wrong reasons about Heath Ledger taking over the role. If this movie was going to work, it needed to set up its characters and its world in such a way that we felt as if we were included in the world. Which lead to 42 Entertainment's landmark viral marketing campaign in which The Joker, and later Harvey Dent, would interact with fans and acclimate them to the world of Nolan's Gotham. The Dent campaign was soliciting voted from the good people of Gotham, challenging everyone to believe in Harvey Dent; whereas The Joker was sending people on errands of mischief that rewarded them with artifacts of his own, unique perspective of the world. This was most famously exhibited in the "jokerization" of promotional materials such as trailers, Dent campaign ads, and even the DVD/Blu Ray box art. For the time span it ran, The Dark Knight viral campaign was a hell of a ride. Such a good one that when 42 Entertainment failed to return for The Dark Knight Rises, its absence was felt immensely.