Box Office: THE DARK KNIGHT beats SPIDEY!!!!

It only took Christopher Nolan one previous movie, an incredible marketing campaign with some of the most intense trailers in cinema history and the presence of Heath Ledger as the iconic villain The Joker (and yes, no doubt his tragic loss played a part to in helping the curiosity of the film) to propel The Dark Knight into the record books. As well as the widest ever release, the highest grossing opening day, the highest grossing Imax release, the fastest selling midnight showings, the unprecedented 3am and 6am showings, the top spot on IMDB with an incredible 9.7 after 47,000 votes, a 94% rating on RT... the movie has now earned the coveted title of the highest grossing opening weekend of all time. Another record broken.

The movie beats last May's Spider-Man 3, which Sam Raimi had built with an extra title in the series and for him, the popular villain Venom. The Dark Knight made Warner Bros. $155.34 million, which is over $4 million more than Spidey 3 on it's first three days of full release. The film was made for $180 million so it hasn't earned it's production costs back yet (lol!) but I don't think the suits at Warner Bros. will be sweating over that. The weekend belongs to Batman, the perfectly produced and marketed production which has resulted in a masterpiece the likes we have seen in a long time. We don't get to see such fan praise, such critical acclaim and box office revenue like this very often, possibly twice a decade as The Return of the King was similar five years ago. This should be the blueprint for every blockbuster made for the next five years. 1 The Dark Knight (2008) $155M $155M 2 Mamma Mia! (2008) $27.6M $27.6M 3 Hancock (2008) $14M $192M 4 Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008) $11.9M $43.1M 5 Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) $10M $56.4M 6 WALL·E (2008) $9.81M $182M 7 Space Chimps (2008) $7.35M $7.35M 8 Wanted (2008) $5.1M $123M 9 Get Smart (2008) $4.08M $120M 10 Kung Fu Panda (2008) $1.75M Surprisngly with such a juggernaut release, the adaptation of the musical comedy Mamma Mia! still managed to earn $27.6 million and with it's early worldwide openings, now totals $100 million worldwide from a $52 million budget. This is virtually on the nose the same amount that Hairspray earned on it's opening weekend of release last summer. That movie went on to make $200 million worldwide and $118 million domestic, so it's not surprising that so many "fluff" musical adaptations are in the works right now. In third place and still going mighty strong (seriously, did anyone expect it to make $14 million after so long and up against The Dark Knight?), possibly the second choice after so many sold out Bat screenings was Will Smith's Hancock which is now closing in on a $200 million domestic gross, from a $150 million budget. Financially it's a big enough hit for a sequel but I'm not sure there is a demand for it for those who saw the movie. Real tragic figures have come in for Universal's Hellboy II which they took a gamble on when it lost it's original studio. Despite some clever Ron Perlman marketing and very good reviews, the movie dropped a massive 70.9% from it's opening weekend of release with only $10 million earned. All fans of Hellboy went to see it in it's first weekend, then there was nothing left up against Batman. The movie is currently on $56.4 million from a $85 million budget. With director Guillermo del Toro moving on to other things, I think Universal will be quite happy to call this series a day. A real tragedy, I think, to one of the best superhero series out there. How Hancock could make money and this one can't is such a fucking shame. The only other newcomer this weekend was the awful looking Space Chimps which surprisingly earned $7.4 million for a G rated picture. source - coming soon