Movie News


Update: DARK KNIGHT Grabs Third Record

By: Jarrod Sarafin
Date: Sunday, July 20, 2008
Source: Variety

Update #2: The Dark Knight has grabbed the Highest All-Time Opening Record. You can check out what happened this weekend in our Mania Box Office Report.

Update #1: I said I would update this throughout the weekend so here's another update. The Dark Knight has grabbed a third record for the best opening day on Friday. The sequel grabbed a record breaking $66.4 million on Friday, making it the third record broken in its first day of release.  I'll have more in the box office report later this afternoon. For the original story, see below.

Original: That Joker and Warner Bros. executives are likely applauding now that The Dark Knight has grabbed its second box office record within its first day of release. We're halfway through its Friday premiere and the trades are reporting that the Nolan-directed sequel has set the new midnight record for box office sales at
$18.5 million from 3,040 screens across the nation. The numbers don't even factor in the 3:00 a.m and 6:00 a.m showings.

The previous record holder was Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, which premiered at midnight on
3,663 theaters and tallied $16.9 million in sales.



The first record taken from The Dark Knight was earlier this morning by being expanded into
a record 4,366 theaters.



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Comments/Responses
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whytedragon • Jul 18, 2008, 02:12pm •
our local theatre which has 14 screens put the midnite showing on 6 screens and sold out 5 of them. movie was great but it made me sad to think we wont get that performance from the next joker :(

raulendymion • Jul 18, 2008, 02:47pm •
Saw it this morning, my wife actually suggested we go see it again. Is there bigger praise then that? "Why so serious?" because we lost one of the greatest actors of our time. The best comic book movie ever made.

hanso • Jul 18, 2008, 03:23pm •
Hate to say I told you sooooooooooooooooooo

almostunbiased • Jul 18, 2008, 03:28pm •
I liked it. My theater is only showing it four times a day though. Even though it's longer you'd think they could show it 5 times a day. Being longer will hurt its chances of getting the weekend record.

As for Heath, great Joker. Two face was good too. I think I liked this better than the first one. I usually never like sequels as much as the origin story so I guess that's saying a lot.

I did like Iron Man better though this was great fun too. This was more kick ace, but Iron man was just more fun. So they're both great.

WISEGUY562 • Jul 18, 2008, 03:38pm •
almost, I agree with you. But they are very different type of movies. IM really is a comic book movie and TDK can almost be taken out of the category, which to me is too bad. There are enough crime dramas out there.

TheWatcher • Jul 18, 2008, 03:59pm •
When I first heard about Heath Ledger being cast as The Joker, I really wasn't acceptable to the news. I mean, I thought Heath was a good actor, but I just didn't think he would be great as The Joker. Boy was I wrong. I saw the midnight show last night, and was just amazed at his performance. TDK, in my opinion, was far better than Batman Begins. I think everyone involved did a great job with this movie, especially Christopher Nolan for his vision and his directing. Definitely one of the greatest comic movies ever made. Possibly the best ever! The story was great, the action was intense, the acting was fantastic. I felt like a kid again watching this movie. Yea the movie is a little long but honestly, it's pretty fast paced and never lets up. I don't think TDK will have a problem breaking the record because of the length of the movie. It's a great ride! Can't wait to add this to my Blu Ray collection.

hanso • Jul 18, 2008, 04:09pm •
The Dark Knight is my favorite movie ever and I haven't seen it yet!
This is the first record soon all will be toppled by the greatest cinematic masterpiece ever created in the history of the universe.

News are coming in that The Dark Knight has brought peace to the Middle East.

jyansr • Jul 18, 2008, 04:12pm •
Since everyone one on this post has seen the movie I don't have a problem asking this question. Did I somehow miss a Selina Kyle cameo?? A guy on a different post said something about one. I went to the pisser for a minute. Might have missed it then..

Flint521466 • Jul 18, 2008, 05:59pm •
This movie wholeheartedly deserves all of the accolades it's receiving. IM is a great movie whereas TDK is a great FILM. Comparing the two is like comparing apples to some fruit nobody has ever heard of.

I realize some of you wanna downplay TDK's sheer ass-kicking-ness. Or try to be the to cool for school"Devils Advocate" because this movie, with all this hype, can't possibly deliver. But you're only fooling yourself, all the while looking like a jackass.

IM better? That would almost be laughable if it wasn't so sad.

It's ok, you can say it without feeling ashamed. You can say it because I, like sooooo many other maniacs, already know and accept the truth:


THE DARK KNIGHT OWNS YOU

RaithManan • Jul 18, 2008, 09:10pm •
Almostunbiased....bottom line: get the record books out. Run time will not hurt the movie. Its what you do in the movie with that run time will determine whether people will come back for seconds, thirds or fourths. And so far most people have seen it 2-3 times already including myself.

And how DARK KNIGHT avoided the R-rating is beyond me. Even though it didn't show blood and had little to almost no hard language, this film skirted with the PG-13 rating harder than any film to date where the rating has come under question since its release because of the visual images and high-impact action....AND I LIKE IT!!! If you want a laid-back BATMAN where the director has a serious fetish with showing men's asses while putting on the rubber suit and showing close-up shots of crotches to make it look like the suit is as tight as a pair of BANANA SMUGGLING SHORTS OF THE 70's, then take your sorry, no-pancake havin without the maple syrup ass and slap in BATMAN & ROBIN....or watch Adam West in all his undignified glory, shaking his beer belly, doin' the BATUSI, have a fake shark GUM his leg to death and forsaking the Batmobile just to be seen OUTRUNNING rush hour traffic while on foot no less in the original BATMAN movie.

The first 10 minutes of the movie reminded me of the final 10 minutes of the over-the-top finale to THE DEPARTED. and the police were more crooked than ever. They'll be helping you one minute then stab their own mothers in the back the next. Probably the same crooked justice where Chloe Kardashian was suppose to serve a 30-day jail sentence only to serve 3 hours today.

But nonetheless...DARK KNIGHT's success is making the rest of DC UNIVERSE (which I can't wait to get my hands on SONY's online version of the game) standing still as far as on-screen films go, though Warners is mostly responisble for that happening because their other projects are either in DEVELOPMENTAL HELL or on WORDPAD HELL since they can't seem to get anything else going. "Now let's put a smile on that face."

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