Warner Bros.' "The Dark Knight" continued to dominate the box office in its second Friday, taking in $23.1 million from 4,366 theaters and propelling its domestic cume toward $300 million.

Repping a 66% decline from its opening day, the current B.O. for the Christopher Nolan-directed superhero pic currently stands at $261.7 million. By Sunday, it's possible that "Dark Knight" might break the record for a pic's second weekend take. Among the highest grossing sophomore frames, DreamWorks' "Shrek 2" holds the title with $72.2 million.

In second place yesterday, Sony's R-rated laffer "Step Brothers" headlining Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly reaped $11.7 million from 3,094 venues.

Universal's "Mamma Mia!" took a 44% dip from its opening a week ago, ringing up $5.5 million off 2,990 for third place. Its eight-day cume currently stands at $50.3 million.

"Dark Knight's" continuing success stole some male action away from Fox's weekend entry "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" which placed fourth yesterday with $4 million from 3,185.

While the long-awaited follow-up to the 1998 pic "X-Files: Fight the Future" performed at the lower end of expectations, the pic had cost under $30 million to produce, thereby minimizing the studio's risk.

Some interesting facts there. Are those total figures worldwide? Because if so, It opened in England on Friday so that might help.

Warner Bros.' Batman sequel "The Dark Knight" earned a record-breaking $75.6 million in its second weekend from 4,366 theaters, bringing its domestic cume to $314.2 million and putting it on track to reach $400 million in slightly more than a week from now.

It was another sunny weekend at the domestic B.O. overall. Sony's Will Ferrell-John C. Reilly comedy "Step Brothers" opened to plenty of laughs in grossing an estimated $30 million from 3,094 runs, while Universal holdover "Mamma Mia" dipped only 36% in its second weekend to grab an estimated $17.9 million from 2,990 runs for a cume of $62.7 million in its first 10 days, according to Rentrak.

The only title coming in on the lower end of expectations was 20th Century Fox's "The X-Files: I Want to Believe," which opened to an estimated $10.2 million from 3,185 runs. Pic placed No. 4, behind "Dark Knight," "Step Brothers" and "Mamma Mia," respectively.

Studios weren't sure they could match the strength of the same weekend a year ago, when Fox's "The Simpsons Movie" opened to a boffo $74 million. The weekend was down only slightly from last year by roughly 1%.

Thanks to the runaway success of Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight," Warners crossed the $1 billion mark in 2008 ticket sales on Sunday, earlier in the year than ever before.

Warners predicts it will overtake Paramount for top in marketshare by the end of the coming week.

Imax continues to see record-breaking results as well. (Nolan shot several segments with large-format cameras.) For the weekend, "Dark Knight's" Imax haul was $4.6 million from 94 theaters for a per location average of $48,500.

The previous record-holder for best second weekend at the domestic box office was "Shrek 2," which earned $72 million over Memorial Day weekend. "Dark Knight" didn't have the benefit of a holiday either.

At the Watchmen panel, Zack Snyder expressed his love for Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, in response to a question about the more mature direction of comic book adaptations.

“There are a lot of other graphic novels out there, but I would love to see Frank Miller’s Dark Knight made into a movie, but that’s just me.”

Later at the Entertainment Weekly Visionaries panel, Frank Miller told Snyder “You can do it anytime you want to Zack”. To which Snyder said he was making a note of Miller’s response. Now I know this is very speculative, but even Batman producer Michael Uslan has already expressed interest in a possible adaptation.

Miller’s four-issue comic book miniseries, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, was first published in 1986. It has since become one of the most popular graphic novel/trade paperbacks of all time. It reintroduced Batman to the general public as the psychologically dark character of his original 1930s conception, and helped to usher in an era of “grim and gritty” superheroes from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s.

Set 20 years in the future, criminals run amok and a gang called the Mutants terrorize Gotham City as superheros are a thing of the past. Bruce Wayne has been retired from crime fighting for ten years following the death of Jason Todd, the second Robin. Despite Wayne’s funding the rehabilitation of Harvey Dent (Two-Face), Dent returns to crime. Wayne dons the Batman costume again and apprehends Dent, but the populace debates whether Batman is a savior.

But with Nolan expected to return for a third chapter in the series, might/could Warner Bros also launch a secondary Batman film? This practice is common in the comic book industry, where top franchise characters usually have a few titles running simultaneously, in addition to the occasional one-shot mini-series/graphic novel… Also, is Zack Snyder the guy to bring The Dark Knight Returns to the big screen?
http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/07/26/...returns-movie/

LONDON — The U.K. box office biz enjoyed its best weekend so far this year, thanks largely to the arrival of caped crusader “The Dark Knight.”

According to figures released Monday by the Film Distributors’ Assoc., 3.19 million people went to the cinema over the weekend. That was north of the previous best 3.04 million who visited July 4-6. Overall weekend grosses came in at $38.1 million, up 26% on the previous frame.

Bumper results were particularly impressive given the weekend weather was sweltering hot — traditionally not conducive to a rush on indoor entertainment. In fact, Sunday was the hottest day so far this year.

Christopher Nolan’s comicbook actioner “The Dark Knight” led the charge, opening top with a massive $22.3 million (including $5 million in Thursday previews) at 502 screens via Warner Bros.

"The Dark Knight" dominated the international box office with $65.6 million at 7,143 playdates in 43 markets.

With its first European launches and impressive holdover biz pushing foreign cume to $126.3 million, "The Dark Knight" appears well on its way to becoming a massive blockbuster outside the United States.

Combined with its record-setting domestic take, worldwide gross has already hit $440 million in a dozen days.

The Batpic sold 8.5 million tickets overseas and its offshore weekend total exceeded the combined grosses for the next four pics -- "Hancock," "Kung Fu Panda," "Mamma Mia" and "X-Files: I Want to Believe" -- even though Warner Bros. has held off launching "The Dark Knight" in many key markets.

France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Spain will see August openings.

In Australia, it declined only 37% to $7.2 million for the third best soph sesh ever, trailing "Shrek 2" and the final "Lord of the Rings."

In Italy, "Knight" obliterated the competition with a $5 million launch that represented over 70% of the top five.

And its $3.2 million in Brazil represented the third-best second frame ever for that market.

After a softer than usual June due to the Euro Cup soccer tourney, July's biz has helped pull overall overseas biz for the six major studios about even with same point with last year's pace.

With "The Dark Knight" providing a major shot in the arm, the final 2008 number could match or even top last year's $9.5 billion record.




LONDON — Box office sensation “The Dark Knight” opened whammo at London’s BFI Imax, banking $220,000 in its first four days. Opening weekend result was bigger than any other Imax site worldwide.

First 20 shows of “Dark Knight” at the 435-seater London cinema were sellouts. Huge bow was boosted by squeezing in extra nighttime screenings (at 2.30 a.m. and 5.30 a.m.) and by sizable advance ticket sales — 37,929 across the program (also a worldwide Imax record).

"Many of our customers have traveled to London from around the country to ensure that they see the film on the U.K.'s biggest screen,” commented Justin Johnson, head of operations, BFI. “Apart from creating more hours in the day, there is nothing more that we can do to meet the huge demand that the film has created.”

The Christian Bale topliner is skedded to run at BFI Imax until Sept. 4 with 38 performances already sold out.

Christopher Nolan’s brooding comicbook actioner features six sequences filmed with Imax cameras.

Seeing it in a couple of hours!

The Dark Knight has taken over the world.:D

No shit.

It is a huge phenomenon sweeping across the world right now, like a silent entertainment army...conquering masses, audiences, hearts...and box-offices.

I've been a Batman fan and collector for about 40 years now (yep. I'm one of the old guy fans) I've seen the character go from the silliness of the Adam West TV series to the grim seriousness of Frank Miller's "Dark Knight Returns" and everything in between, So it was with much anticipation(and maybe a little worry)that I went and saw "The Dark Knight". "Batman Begins" was a fine movie and I wondered if they could possibly top it. Well, I need not have worried. "The Dark Knight"was flat out brilliant. Superb acting, action, FX and story all combined to make the best movie of the year (so far) and probably the best comic book movie ever. I can't recommend this movie enough. Go see it, It's great.

MY GOD! I just got back from seeing TDK. And I thought you lot were just exaggerating but that film is simply BRILLIANT!!! When everybody was going on about how good Heath Ledger is I thought some of it was just not wanting to seem disrespectful because he's dead, but I was so impressed with him, I will be annoyed if he doesn't get an award for it. My favourite superhero film, my favourite film this year and in my top 10 favourites. Utterly brilliant.

There was one thing that brought it down and that was Dent. Brilliant character but they made him too insane, too quickly. It just wasn't realistic. And surely he'd have a speech impedement, and have to contnually have eye drops, or this undamaged by fire eye would shrivel up like a raisin. But still, even these annoyances couldn't even make a dent (pun intended) on the beauty that was this film.