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Comics2Film: DARK KNIGHT and HULK pimp 08

Hulk helps Uni bring the bling, while Bats drives up DVD sales

By Rob M. Worley     January 02, 2009
Source: Various


Rage face from Incredible Hulk (slideshow)
© Universal Pictures

It won't surprise anyone to learn that 2008 was a good year for comic-based movies. Now 'Dark Knight' is topping DVD sales charts as well as critics' lists, and 'Incredible Hulk' and 'Wanted' helped Universal Pictures have the best year ever. Read on...

 

INCREDIBLE HULK and WANTED give Universal its Best Year Ever!

Universal pictures issued a press release yesterday touting 2008 as its biggest year ever, topping 2007 which was the previous record-holder.

The studio rang up global theatrical grosses totaling $2.834 billion, more than double 2007's numbers. The studio took in $1.714 billion domestically.

Universal cites four movies as keys to the year's success. Not surprisingly, two of them are comic-based films. 'The Incredible Hulk' and 'Wanted' along with 'Mamma Mia!' and 'The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor' each bagged over $100 million in domestic sales, making them the big winners for the studio.

'Wanted', based on Mark Millar and J.G. Jones' indie comic opened with a whopping $51 million in its first weekend and went on to earn $144 million. Surprisingly it was the best-opening ever for Angelina Jolie and the biggest R-rated opening ever for the month of June. Internationally the film rang up $209.5 million in foreign grosses.

'The Incredible Hulk' also proved a welcome return for the studio. It opened to $55 million and went on to gross more than $135 million in North America.

 

DARK KNIGHT is #1...again!

After falling back to #2, 'The Dark Knight' has re-assumed the top spot on DVD sales charts during the holiday lull. The bat-film's third week of release saw it topping newbie's 'Burn After Reading' and 'Death Race', both of which posted respectable numbers.

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THR critic gives 2008 nod to DARK KNIGHT

The Hollywood Reporter's chief film critic Kirk Honeycutt named 'The Dark Knight' his top film of 2008, in an apparent tie with 'Slumdog Millionaire'. 

Honeycutt goes on to discuss what's generally wrong with comic-based movies (he's not a fan) and what both the Batman epic and 'Iron Man' did right whereas 'The Spirit' did wrong. And then he strangely lumps 'Wall-E' in as a comic-book movie, apparently not appreciative of the differences between comics and cartoons.

 

[LINK]

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COMMENTS AND RESPONSES

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1 
xenomorph 1/2/2009 2:35:53 PM
Can't tell the difference between a comic book and a cartoon. Sad.
SONYMANswallows 1/2/2009 6:52:10 PM
Can he tell the difference between blue balls and hockey pucks at least? Angelina Jolie visiting te set of The Dark Knight. It was well filmed and there was good action. However that could not help a plot which tried to be fun and serious but failed on both counts. However the big disappointment was Morgan Freeman. I can only assume he put on a suit jacket when he was not on set for The Dark Knight because this role or at least the way it was written seemed better fit for Sam Jackson in 15-20 years. If you saw the commercials for WANTED you saw Morgan Freeman's character except SPOLIER Morgan Freeman is really the villain who killed father of the kid he has recruited. Well except that the father is still alive until the son kills him because the kid thinks he is really the guy who killed his father and not actually his father. Moran Freeman does play it straight until the end when he says to "Shoot this Mother fucker" in a role meant for someone who can play bad ass in a way that Morgan Freeman could not. In the end the assassins, minus Mr. Freeman and the new kid, are taken out by Angelina Jolie with a suicide bullet and her loyalty to a psyching old school sewing machine. Yeah I was disappointed in this movie even though it had some fun. But the fun was outnumbered by a weak story, story occupying and boring bullets, a poorly chosen cast and a voice over that needs to get its ass kicked by Chris Rock.
keithdaniel 1/3/2009 1:15:50 PM
Kirk Honeycutt is some critic. One shouldn't let their bias against a certain type of film influence those films like the comic superhero genre. Honeycutt says that only this year showed what showed how good comic book movies can be. Excuse me? Has the man not seen the Spiderman films(especially 1 and 2),The Incredible Hulk,Blade 1 and 2,Batman Begins,X-men 2,and Superman 1 and 2? I respect anyone's right to their opinion but be fair to the respective genre! Honeycutt says that he didn't like films like The Spirit because it followed comic book rules instead of movie rules. Comic book films of course have their own rules...because that's what they are! It doesn't take a genius to figure that out. Honeycutt obviously is a very fussy-ass type of critic in the same vain as Owen Glibermann of Entertainment Weekly!
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