Posted on Sat, Jul. 19, 2008
The Bat signal has been burning brightly in the night sky.
At 56 area theaters, fans, many in costume, eagerly queued up yesterday morning at 12:01 to be the first to see
The Dark Knight, the explosive new Batman movie.
The Dark Knight set a new mark for midnight ticket sales with $18.5 million, surpassing the $16.5 million of
2005's
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, a record that was believed to be unassailable.
Outside the AMC Loews Cherry Hill 24, Hezi Lowe, a teenager from Lower Merion, exclaimed, "I found out about this movie last July 18, so I've been waiting an entire year for this!"
Nearly three hours later, the crowd streamed out of the cineplex, duly impressed. "It was . . . awesome, man," said a 25-year-old moviegoer who identified himself only as Mike from Penn State. "I don't want to spoil anything. . . . The action sequences, the overall story from beginning to end, I was just clinging to the edge of my seat. It was just phenomenal."
"It lived up to the hype. It was probably the best movie I've seen this year so far. . . . The Joker, the Joker was amazing," said Greg Noga, 17, of Marlton, marveling over Heath Ledger's final performance, as the film's garishly made-up arch-villain.
Midnight openings have become fairly standard for big-ticket movies. But in other parts of the country, theaters were adding 3:30 and even 6 a.m. showings of
The Dark Knight to accommodate overflow crowds.
That new wrinkle - call them soirnees - had the film industry cracking open a brand-new box office category: predawn grosses.
The critically hailed film, starring Christian Bale as the Caped Crusader, is not merely a fly-by-night sensation. Batmania seems likely to build through the weekend, with
The Dark Knight playing in an unprecedented 4,366 theaters domestically.
Based on blistering early volume yesterday, Harry Medved, spokesman for Fandango, the movie-ticket-sales Web site, was confidently predicting that "Friday is absolutely going to be the best-selling day in company history." The frenzy is almost entirely due to
The Dark Knight, with a minor assist from
Mamma Mia!
Director Christopher Nolan's decision to simultaneously shoot the film in large-screen format also seems to be paying off. As of yesterday afternoon, showings of
The Dark Knight on the two local Imax screens - the Franklin Institute's Tuttleman Theater and UA King of Prussia - were sold out through Monday morning.
"We are basically at capacity," said Greg Foster, chairman and president of Imax Filmed Entertainment, on the phone from Los Angeles. "It's blowing my expectations out of the water. I would be completely disingenuous if I told you that the degree of excitement surrounding this launch would be at the level that it's at today."
Projecting box office totals is a notoriously imprecise pursuit. But few experts are calling for
The Dark Knight to shatter the record for an opening weekend, set last year by
Spider-Man 3 with a $151.1 million gross. (The film's length, 21/2 hours, limits the number of times it can be shown.)
But it is expected to take in more than $100 million by tomorrow, far exceeding its predecessor,
Batman Begins, also directed by Nolan and starring Bale, which grossed $48.7 million in its opening weekend in 2005.
So how did the Batman franchise suddenly catch fire, six films into its evolution?
Most people are crediting the buzz surrounding the performance of Ledger, who died in January of what was ruled an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. In her review, Inquirer critic Carrie Rickey wrote: "This unsettling, mesmerizing performance is indeed Oscar-worthy."
(The original 1989 film,
Batman, starring Michael Keaton as the title character, also featured the Joker, memorably played by Jack Nicholson.)
But there are other factors in
The Dark Knight's surprisingly robust momentum.
"It would seem unrealistic for a sequel to a movie that opened for less than $50 million to double or triple that opening, but it's not unprecedented," said Brandon Gray, president and publisher of the movie business Web site Box Office Mojo. "The second
Pirates of the Caribbean more than doubled the opening of the first
Pirates. And the sequels to
Austin Powers and
The Terminator both did far better than their predecessors in theaters.
"What's driving the flurry for
The Dark Night is that
Batman Begins was so well-received," Gray continued. "It had a modest start by blockbuster standards but it held well, grossing over $205 million domestically. There was some skepticism initially because the previous film,
Batman & Robin [in 1997], was a debacle.
Batman Begins was all about restoring the franchise. It got people excited about Batman again."
So what is driving people to the theaters? Is it a durable hero, an unforgettable villain, or merely a good excuse to relax in an air-conditioned building for a few hours on a torrid weekend?
If you asked three South Philly kids waiting to buy tickets outside the UA Riverview on Columbus Boulevard yesterday afternoon, it might be a little of all three.
"We've seen all the other Batman movies, and I want to see Heath Ledger," said Giavana Suraci, 13.
"I'm seeing it because of the Joker," said her older brother Joe, 17. "It's not about Heath Ledger - the Joker's just cool."
Added Nino Tini, 12, "I'm just seeing it because they're seeing it."
Contact staff writer David Hiltbrand at dhiltbrand@ phillynews.com or 215-854-4552. Read his recent work at http://go.philly.com/daveondemand. Staff writer Elizabeth Fox contributed to this report.
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