Will The Dark Knight Rises Beat The Avengers $200 Million Weekend Record?
How will The Dark Knight respond to his biggest challenge? Will he rise?
The gauntlet has been laid, the challenge set. Marvel's superhero spectacular "The Avengers" has just opened to the tune of $200.3 million in the US, making it the biggest opening weekend release of all time. Once upon a time that record was owned by a certain caped crusader... Back in July of 2008, a combination of an amazing marketing campaign and incredible trailers, high interest in seeing The Joker (possibly cinema's most proven box office villain) on our screens for the first time in two decades, the curiosity of Heath Ledger's final performance and an excellent origin movie in Batman Begins that really caught an audience on home video... all played a part in The Dark Knight opening to a then record breaking $158 million weekend. Three whole years passed with nobody looking likely to topple Batman from his perch until the final Harry Potter movie, helped by high priced 3D ticket sales, earned $11 million last year on its opening weekend. But now Marvel's epic culmination of four years of film marketing has blown Potter & Batman out of the water with its $200.3 million. How will The Dark Knight respond to his biggest challenge? He has been away for a few years but will he rise to something extraordinary? The Dark Knight Rises opens July 20th, 2012 and no movie has enjoyed as much pre-release buzz towards its release in the history of this website, going back to 2006. Not The Avengers or the final Harry Potter movie, nothing. IMAX tickets will help The Dark Knight Rises of course but you would be hard pressed to argue with me that The Dark Knight didn't gain $50 million worth of opening weekend audience to defeat The Avengers. The Dark Knight wasn't just lightening in the bottle. But what do you think? Can one superhero topple the might of half a dozen this summer? Vote now and tell us what you think...